Rs 1.90 lakh crore bailout package for discoms cheers up power sector stocks

Power stocks have put forth an electrifying show post government on Monday cleared Rs 1.90 lakh crore debt restructuring for power distribution companies, the second such move in less than a decade for entities that keep running up losses due to severe political interference even in regulatory agencies that fix tariffs.

In a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) it was decided that states will take over half of the liabilities of the electricity distribution companies, which will issue bonds to banks based on government guarantee. The takeover process will be spread over two to five years, while the remaining 50% of the liabilities would be rescheduled by lenders by providing a longer tenure and also a moratorium on payment of installments. However, the planned restructuring needs to be accompanied by steps such as tariff revision, metering and payment of subsidies by the state governments.

PTC India is currently trading at Rs 69.50, up by 1.70 points or 2.51% from its previous closing of Rs 67.80 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 68.90 and has touched a high and low of Rs 71.65 and Rs 68.90 respectively. So far 241539 shares were traded on the counter.

Power Finance Corporation is currently trading at Rs 201.85, up by 2.10 points or 1.05% from its previous closing of Rs 199.75 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 202.40 and has touched a high and low of Rs 206.80 and Rs 201.00 respectively. So far 222969 shares were traded on the counter.

Rural Electrification Corporation is currently trading at Rs 230.55, up by 0.25 points or 0.11% from its previous closing of Rs 230.30 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 236.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs 238.00 and Rs 229.60 respectively. So far 211119 shares were traded on the counter.

State electricity boards (SEBs) have long been ailing because of the humongous debt they have had to raise at different points of time and many of them have not revised power tariffs for years and were selling power below cost just as the government wanted to feed their populist agenda. That forced the distribution companies to borrow to fund their losses.

The situation was also worrisome for the lenders who were not getting timely repayments, many banks have seen their exposure to these SEBs rise to 5-13% of their respective books, main lenders include Canara Bank (13%), Allahabad Bank (13%) OBC (11%), Corporation Bank (11%), PNB (9%), Union Bank (7%), BoB (6%).