Mar 26 Jan 2021 15:41
Compte rendu conference Nava Bharat
Zeco doit 359m$
Ashwin Devineni:
With respect to receivables, I presume you are talking about Maamba
Collieries. The current situation on the receivables is that to date we
have billed about US$ 909 million, we have received about US$ 550
million, which is about 61% of what we have billed. And the
outstanding remains at about US$ 359 million, and this includes about
US$ 19.6 million of interest. We have commenced an arbitration
proceeding against ZESCO with regard to the outstanding amount and
the process is currently underway.
Well, the arbitration normally is a general process, that is being done in
London. So we are all hoping that it gets resolved sooner rather than
later. But generally, an arbitration of claims of such nature takes about
one to two years.
As I mentioned we have the arbitration process on the previous
outstanding amount. In terms of future tariff, we want to attain a tariff
that is workable for both of us, such that ZESCO can pay us on a
monthly basis, in full, without us having to chase them and there not
being any shortfall. So, for those tariffs, discussions and negotiations
are underway. And I think once we come up with a tariff that is
workable for both ZESCO and for us, which will be enough to meet our
operational expenditure, debt servicing and also we should have some
surplus for dividend distribution, so the monies can flow back into the
parent company. I think once we arrive at a tariff, we will be
approaching the lenders in terms of the debt restructuring. The
restructuring process will probably envisage a combination of various
elements, including probably an increase in loan tenure and so on, so
that our repayments are brought down and where we can also sustain
the new tariffs that we agreed to. The lenders are aware of this tariff
negotiation and so they are also in line with our plans of agreeing to a
sustainable tariff and looking forward for debt restructuring.
In terms of the receivables of Maamba, we still do get about $9.2
million to $9.5 million every month from the state utility, although we
bill upwards of that. What we are looking at, which I had described
during prior part of the call is we are currently in discussions with
ZESCO, which is a state utility, in terms of renegotiating the tariffs and
basically agreeing to a tariff that we can confidently pay 100% on a
monthly basis, rather than the partial payment that the outstanding
keeps going up.
Yes, essentially renegotiating just the tariffs right now, not the other
terms of the PP A. We are not negotiating the outstanding amount
which is under arbitration. I think what we are seeing is rather than on a
month-on-month where the outstanding just keeps increasing, let's
agree to a tariff that you as a utility can pay us in full every month, and
also a tariff that is enough for us to meet our operational expenditures,
meet our debt service and also give some returns back to the sponsors
i.e. both Nava Bharat and ZCCM-IH Investment Holdings Plc. That is
currently underway. I think once we agree to something there we can
restructure the deal with lenders hoping that 100% of our bills will be
paid in time, and the outstanding amount would be frozen.