MUMBAI, 23 JULY, 2020 (GPN): Gateway Distriparks Ltd., the intermodal logistics service provider, is set to launch its rights issue on July 30. Meanwhile, July 24 has been fixed as record date to finalise the list of eligible investors for rights issue shares.

The Rights Entitlement will start trading on the exchanges on July 30 and the issue will close on August 30.

The company that runs container freight stations and inland container depots has announced a rights entitlement ratio of 4:27, which means that shareholders will be entitled to 4 shares for every 27 existing shares held by shareholders.

The company plans to raise Rs 116 crore through its rights issue. The fresh capital raise is primarily for repayment of debt and once this is done, the debt of the company will be significantly reduced to twice its EBITDA.

“We have prepaid Rs 135 crore of non-convertible debentures in the recent past and the proposed rights issue will enable us further to reduce our debt. Accordingly, the proposed rights issue will help deleverage our balance sheet,” Prem Kishan Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director said.

The issue price has been fixed at Rs 72, which is 18 percent discount to closing price on July 20 when the company announced rights issue details.

Gateway Distriparks has posted net profit of Rs 11.11 crore for the period ended March 31, 2020 as against Rs 300.80 crore for the period ended March 31, 2019.

“The return on capital employed (RoCE) of this stock is 7.31 percent which is comparatively less than its peers like Container Corporation of India (16.62 percent), Allcargo Logistics (12.73 percent) and Mahindra Logistics (17.74 percent). Also, its EPS (1.03) is less when compared to other peers like Container Corporation of India Ltd (5.21) and Allcargo Logistics Ltd (2.12),” Gaurav Garg said.

Gateway Distriparks operates four container freight stations located at Navi Mumbai, Chennai, and Krishnapatnam and two container freight stations at Kochi and Visakhapatnam, through its subsidiaries, Gateway Distriparks (Kerala) and Gateway East India, respectively.

As of June 30, 2020, it also owns a fleet of 193 trailers for transportation between maritime ports and the CFSs.

In addition, its subsidiary, Gateway Rail Freight (GRFL), provides container rail transportation service between the maritime ports at Nhava Sheva, Mundra, and Pipavav and the four inland container depots owned and operated by it at Gurugram, Ludhiana, Faridabad, and Viramgam, and additionally operates a domestic terminal at Navi Mumbai.

As of June 30, 2020, GRFL operates a fleet of 31 train-sets along with 338 trailers which facilitate last-mile pick-up and delivery of cargo. ENDS