Rating Rationale
May 14, 2019 | Mumbai
Uflex Limited
'CRISIL A/Stable/CRISIL A1' assigned to bank debt
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.2200 Crore
Long Term Rating CRISIL A/Stable (Assigned)
Short Term Rating CRISIL A1 (Assigned)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL has assigned its 'CRISIL A/Stable/CRISIL A1' ratings to the bank facilities of Uflex Limited (Uflex, part of UFLEX group).
 
The ratings reflect the company's established presence in the flexible packaging industry, diversified customer and product profile; and comfortable financial risk profile. These strengths are partially offset by working capital intensive operations, demand related risks from the new liquid packaging plant and cyclical and commoditised nature of plastic films industry.

Analytical Approach

For arriving at its ratings, CRISIL has combined the business and financial risk profiles of Uflex with all its Indian and foreign subsidiaries, and step down subsidiaries, referred to as the Uflex Group on account of operational, management and financial linkages among entities.
 
Please refer Annexure - Details of consolidation, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths:
* Established market position in the flexible packaging industry: Uflex Group is one of the largest players in the flexible packaging industry with a strong market presence in both the domestic and overseas markets, through its subsidiaries in Egypt, Dubai, Mexico, Kentucky and Poland. The group reported revenues of around Rs. 5900 crore in nine months Fiscal 2019 as against Rs. 4896 crore in corresponding period of Fiscal 2018. 
 
* Diversified product and customer profile: Uflex Group has its presence throughout the value chain in flexible packaging. It provides complete end-to-end packaging solutions ranging from basic raw materials (PET Chips), intermediate products (packaging machines, holograms, adhesives) and end products (plastic films and laminates). Over the years, the Group has developed a reputed and diversified customer base, catering to leading players in the plastic films, packaging and FMCG industry. Also, customer concentration risk is low, as top ten customers in the plastic films and packaging division (standalone) account for only ~11% and ~37% of the total division sales respectively in Fiscal 2018.
 
* Comfortable financial risk profile: Capital structure stands comfortable with gearing at 0.4 times and 0.5 times and as on September 30, 2018 and March 31, 2018 respectively. Debt protection metrics also stand strong with interest cover of 4.9 times and 4.5 times for 1H Fiscal 2019 and Fiscal 2018 respectively.
 
Weaknesses:
* Working capital intensive operations: Gross current assets were at 179 days as on March 31, 2018, driven by debtors of 107 days and inventory of 50 days for Fiscal 2018. The working capital requirements are partially offset by credit of 80-100 days from the suppliers.
 
* Demand related risks from the new liquid packaging plant: Uflex group's new plant for liquid packaging products in Gujarat has started operations in March 2018. The same is yet to fully stabilise and also generate profits on a standalone basis. The demand related risks for the group are high as the group needs to tie up with long term basis with customers over the medium term in order to turn profitable and support the group's liquidity. Group has tied up with few customers, however, significant volume ramp up needs to be witnessed over the medium term.
 
* Cyclical and commoditised nature of plastic films industry: The BOPP and BOPET industry is marked by cyclicality. Product realisations have fluctuated in the past, depending on the demand-supply gap. Moreover, the industry has a tendency to add large capacities when there is an improvement in prices, resulting in overcapacity and hence, pressure on realisations. Also, because of the commoditised nature of the packaging business, players have little scope for passing on increase in raw material costs (accounting for 65 to 75 per cent of net sales), making them highly susceptible to volatility in raw material prices. Thus, players' operating margins are susceptible to fluctuations in both product realisations and input costs.
Liquidity

Liquidity is ample marked by low bank limit utilization with average fund based and non-fund based limit utilization at 65% and 55% for twelve months ended November-2018. Company is expected to generate healthy cash accruals of Rs. 750-900 crore against repayments of Rs. 350-450 crore in Fiscal 2020 and Fiscal 2021. The group had unencumbered cash of ~Rs. 224 crore as on March 31, 2018. Company has set up liquid packaging plant, the operations of which are expected to stabilize by next fiscal and hence will further support the liquidity.

Outlook: Stable

CRISIL believes the Uflex group will continue to benefit over the medium term from its established market position in the flexible packaging industry and comfortable financial risk profile. The outlook may be revised to 'Positive' if stabilization of liquid packaging unit results in significant increase in revenue and operating margin, along with improvement in working capital cycle while debt levels continue to reduce gradually. The outlook may be revised to 'Negative' if there is delay in stabilization of liquid packaging unit impacting profitability, or significant debt-funded capital expenditure weakens financial risk profile and liquidity.

About the Group

Promoted and founded in 1985 by Mr. Ashok Chaturvedi, Uflex group, is engaged in offering end-to-end flexible packaging solutions including films (BOPET, BOPP, CPP and metallized), flexible laminates, holographic films, aseptic liquid packaging, packaging & printing machines and inks and adhesives, etc. catering mainly to the FMCG industry. The company is headquartered in Noida (National Capital Region, New Delhi) and has manufacturing facilities in India, Dubai, Mexico, Egypt, Poland and USA.

Key Financial Indicators -UFLEX group*
Particulars Unit 2018 2017
Revenue Rs Cr. 6688.9 6159.4
Profit After Tax (PAT) Rs Cr. 312.2 350.7
PAT Margin % 4.7 5.7
Adjusted Debt/Adjusted Networth Times 0.5 0.6
Interest coverage Times 4.5 4.8
*Actual

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments. The CRISIL complexity levels are available on www.crisil.com/complexity-levels. Users are advised to refer to the CRISIL complexity levels for instruments that they consider for investment. Users may also call the Customer Service Helpdesk with queries on specific instruments.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of instrument Date of
allotment
Coupon
rate (%)
Maturity
date
Issue size
(Rs crore)
Rating assigned
with outlook
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Sep-27 923.0 CRISIL A/Stable
NA Working Capital
Facility
NA NA NA 775.0 CRISIL A/Stable
NA Letter of Credit NA NA NA 25.0 CRISIL A1
NA Proposed Fund-Based Bank Limits NA NA NA 477.0 CRISIL A/Stable
 
Annexure - List of entities consolidated
Entities consolidated
  • Uflex Limited
  • U Tech Developers Limited
  • USC Holograms Pvt. Ltd.
  • S.D.Buildwell Private Limited
  • Flex Middle East FZE
  • Flex Americas S.A. de C.V.
  • Flex P. Films Egypt S.A.E.
  • Flex Films Europa Sp. Z.o.o.
  • Flex Films (USA) Inc
  • UFlex Europe Limited
  • UFLEX Packaging Inc.
  • UPET Holdings Limited
  • Upet Singapore Pte. Ltd.
  • Flex P. Films (Brasil) Commercio De Films Plasticos Ltda
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2019 (History) 2018  2017  2016  Start of 2016
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  2175.00  CRISIL A/Stable    --    --    --    --  -- 
Non Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  25.00  CRISIL A1    --    --    --    --  -- 
All amounts are in Rs.Cr.
Annexure - Details of various bank facilities
Current facilities Previous facilities
Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating
Working Capital Facility 775 CRISIL A/Stable -- 0 --
Proposed Fund-Based Bank Limits 477 CRISIL A/Stable -- 0 --
Letter of Credit 25 CRISIL A1 -- 0 --
Long Term Loan 923 CRISIL A/Stable -- 0 --
Total 2200 -- Total 0 --
Links to related criteria
CRISILs Approach to Financial Ratios
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings - process, scale and default recognition
Rating criteria for manufaturing and service sector companies
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings
CRISILs Criteria for Consolidation
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt
The Rating Process
Understanding CRISILs Ratings and Rating Scales

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