Bangalore: India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has maintained a negative outlook on the infrastructure sector for FY18, albeit with revised outlooks for a couple of sub-sectors.The increase in receivables position of wind power plants limited the headroom available to handle low wind patterns; hence, Ind-Ra has revised wind energy’s outlook to negative for FY18 from stable for FY17. With little improvements in the issues facing the toll roads sector (low inflation , slower ramp up, lower toll rate growth) and coal-based thermal power (demand-supply mismatch, increased thrust on renewables), Ind-Ra continues with its negative outlook on these two sectors. Road developers have found a penchant for infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) – 75% of the InvITs in the listing stage are from the highway sector. With better-than-expected improvement in throughput levels, the capex plans of couple of airports are likely to be advanced. Delay in real estate monetisation continues to be an overhang on the Mumbai and Delhi airports.

Source: Economic Times February 21, 2017 09:45 UTC