Ashok Leyland (ALL) on Monday said it was working on a number of initiatives to bring down its debt-to-equity ratio from 1.4:1 to 1:1 in the current fiscal. The company ruled out capacity expansion as also any major investments both at its plant and joint venture companies over the next three years.
“Our overall debt has been brought down from a peak of R6,500 crore in August last year (2013) to R4,500 crore in Q1, i.e., from 1.4:1 to 1.2:1. We will further bring it down to 1:1 in the current fiscal,” said Gopal Mahadevan, chief financial officer, ALL.
“Though we posted a loss in Q1, our EBITDA margins grew from 3.7% to 4.7% in Q1 as against 1% in the same quarter last fiscal, which is a good sign for us. This could be possible with number of newer products as well increased prices. Interestingly, our net realisation is getting better by 1.5% to 2% as compared to Q1 of last fiscal, he pointed out.
