#HAL just Broken and Closed Above its Previous All Time High
Company has reduced debt.
Company is almost debt free.
Company has delivered good profit growth of 23.9% CAGR over last 5 years
Company has a good return on equity (ROE) track record: 3 Years ROE 26.7%
Company has been maintaining a healthy dividend payout of 29.6%
Company's working capital requirements have reduced from 98.4 days to 38.2 days
Strong order book providing healthy revenue visibility
HAL's order book remained healthy at ₹84,814 crore as on December 31, 2023 majorly contributed by manufacturing of various models of helicopters and aircraft of around 56,569 crore to be executed over the next five to six years. Major orders in the manufacturing segment pertains to supply of 83 Light Combat Aircraft-Mk1A version (LCA), 70 HTT-40, 6 LCA 10C/FOC, 4 Dornier apart from various aerospace structures for PSLV and GSLV. The ROH order book remained healthy at 28,277 crore and is expected to remain robust in the near to medium term as HAL undertakes the repair and maintenance work of aircraft manufactured by it for its entire life as well as for aircraft manufactured by others for which it has built infrastructure across the country. Furthermore, there remains visibility of future orders with strong order pipeline wherein orders for procurement of new platforms viz. Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), Additional Su-30, AL31 FP Engines and RD-33 Engines and mid-life upgrade of D0-228 Aircraft aggregating to 55,000 crore are in the advance stage of conclusion and are anticipated to be received within next three to siz months. In addition, orders for procurement of additional 97 Nos of LCA, 156 Nos of Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), 60 Nos Utility Helicopter-Maritime (UHM) including Performance Based Logistics (PBL) Contract, among others aggregating to 158,000 crore have been approved by the Defence Acquisition Council and the orders against the same are anticipated within next 18-24 months.
Given the significantly long tenure of its contracts, HAL enters into variable price contracts with its customers, Indian Airforce, Indian Army and Indian Navy, wherein the future escalation is built into the prices excluding forex fluctuation on procurement. The forex fluctuations are paid on an actual basis by the customers. This protects its margins from forex and raw material price escalation to a large extent. However, profitability may get impacted due to time or cost overrun in case there is execution delays at HAL's end.
Strong financial risk profile marked by healthy profitability and cash accruals and continued improvement in its
collection period
HAL continues to have a sizeable scale of operations and the TOI grew y-o-y by 8% to 26,397 crore in FY23 majorly on the back of increase in revenue from repairs and maintenance services. The PBILDT margin stood healthy at 25.68% in FY23. Income tax refund of 1193 crore and ₹973 crore further supported profitability in FY22 and FY23 respectively. The company earned gross cash accruals (GCA) of ₹7,000 crore in FY23 as against 5,634 crore in FY22. Its debt coverage indicators remain strong due to low reliance on external borrowings. The revenue contribution from manufacturing activities declined in FY22 and FY23 y-o-y, as majority of the manufacturing orders were completed, and the new contracts were under manufacturing and in development phase and delivery of the same is expected to be booked in FY25 onwards. Accordingly, its income is likely to get a fillip from FY25 onwards once deliveries start for 83 LCA Mk1A in a staggered manner.
In 9MFY24, HAL registered TOI of ₹15,612 crore and profit after tax (PAT) of ₹3,303 crore as against TOI of ₹14,433 crore and PAT of ₹2,970 crore registered in 9MFY23. CARE Ratings expects the profitability and debt coverage indicators to remain healthy, going forward.
The total receivables of HAL continued to remain below ₹5000 crore as on balance sheet date for past two years ended FY23 as it had realised substantial payment from government in FY22. The collection period has improved from 135 days in FY21 to 64 days in FY23. HAL also receives advances from its customers against the contracts which constitutes a stable source of funding its working capital requirement. The advances stood robust at 28,981 crore as on March 31, 2023 which further increased to *32,588 crore as on December 31, 2023. Timely realisation of dues and increase in advances has resulted in continued low reliance on debt to fund its working capital requirement. The same resulted in the overall gearing ratio of almost nil as on March 31, 2023.
The company has strongly articulated that going forward HAL's debt level is expected to remain low on the back of sustaining its
improved collection period.