Fitch afrms Gold Plus Glass Industry's rtgs on bank debt

April 27 - Fitch Ratings has today affirmed Gold Plus Glass Industry Limited's (GPGI's) National Long term rating at 'BB(ind)'. The Outlook is Stable. At the same time Fitch has affirmed the ratings of GPGI's modified bank facilities amounts as follows: - Existing long-term bank loans of INR2368.7m (reduced from INR2380m): National Long-term rating at 'BB(ind)';

- Non fund-based working capital banking lines of INR100m: National Long-term rating at 'BB(ind)' and National Short-term rating at 'F4(ind)'; and

- Fund-based (cash credit) working capital banking lines of INR528.5m (enhanced from INR220m): National Long-term rating at 'BB(ind)' and National Short-term rating at 'F4(ind)'.

This rating action commentary updates the same published by the agency on 23 March 2009.

GPGI is part of the Gold Plus Group (GPG), an industrial group engaged in the trading and processing of glass sheets for the automotive and construction/architectural sectors. In the automotive sector, GPG is one of the suppliers of replacement glasses for automobiles in India. In the construction/architectural sectors, it supplies insulating and other structural glasses to corporate houses and real estate developers. GPG has set up a float glass line unit in Uttrakhand at an installed capacity of 460 tons per day under GPGI with commercial production commencing in January 2009.

Besides GPGI, the GPG consists of Gold Plus Glass India Limited (GPI), Gold Plus Toughened Glass Limited (GPT) and Gold Plus Himachal Safety Glass Limited (GPH), all of which have guaranteed the loans taken by GPGI. In FY08, GPI, GPT and GPH reported net revenues of INR327.2m, INR346.9m and INR290.6m, respectively, operating EBITDAR margins of 8.6%, 8.2% and 31%, respectively, and net incomes of INR13.1m, INR13.2m and INR73.3m, respectively. Total adjusted debt of GPI, GPT and GPH amounted to INR78m, INR58.3m and INR80m, respectively at FYE08, which resulted in a total adjusted debt/operating EBITDAR at 2.8x, 2.0x and 0.9x, respectively.