India's JBF says working with lenders, plants running 'satisfactorily'

JBF Industries

10/08/2017 11:31

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Indian polyester maker JBF Industries 
 JBFI.NS  said on Thursday it was working with its lenders to 
resolve cashflow issues and it stressed that all plants were 
running "satisfactorily." 
    The stock closed 5.9 percent higher, having hit a three-year 
low earlier in the session. It has dived more than 20 percent 
this week over lingering concerns about the company's debt. 
    Banking sources told Reuters this week that JBF RAK, an 
affiliate of JBF Group in the United Arab Emirates, is in talks 
with banks there about renegotiating about 2 billion dirhams 
($544.53 million) of debt.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1KS061 
    JBF's board is also due to meet on Friday to discuss the 
company's earnings and also the sale or restructuring of the 
company's overseas units to cut debt.  
    The meeting had been originally scheduled for Thursday. 
    "The company is working along with its lenders towards 
resolving cashflow issues. Furthermore, despite rumours of the 
company's operations being impacted, all plants are running 
satisfactorily," JBF said in a filing on Thursday.  
    JBF has previously denied rumours of defaults on loans in 
international operations, calling them "baseless" in a stock 
exchange filing on Tuesday. There was no delay in payment of 
interest or principal to any bank in the UAE as of June 30, 
2017, the company has said. 
    However, it said payments to Indian lenders have been 
delayed, saying recent policy changes of the Indian government 
have hurt its cashflows. 
    India Ratings and Research, which cut the company's rating 
to 'D', said last month the downgrade was on "account of a 
significant deterioration in the group's financial risk profile, 
resulting from losses in overseas operations." 
 
    ($1 = 3.6729 UAE dirham) 
 
 (Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru and Devidutta Tripathy 
in Mumbai; Editing by Euan Rocha and Sherry Jacob-Phillips) 
 ((tanvi.mehta@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 67494756 ; Reuters 
Messaging: tanvi.mehta.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: JBF INDUSTRIES DEBT/