Press Release

VIS Maintains Entity Ratings of Procon Engineering (Pvt.) Limited

Karachi, January 26, 2023: VIS Credit Rating Company Limited (VIS) has maintained the entity ratings of Procon Engineering (Pvt.) Limited (‘PEPL’ or ‘the Company’) at ‘A/A-2’ (Single A /A-Two). Outlook on the assigned ratings has been revised from ‘Stable’ to ‘Negative’. Long term entity rating of ‘A’ reflects good credit quality, adequate protection factors. Risk factors may vary with possible changes in the economy. Short Term Rating of ‘A-2’ indicates good certainty of timely payment, liquidity factors and company fundamental factors are sound. Previous rating action was announced on October 21, 2021.
Assigned ratings incorporates sponsor support of Master Group (the Group), a well-diversified conglomerate. The Group has, from time to time, exhibited support through extension of interest-free loans. Ratings take into account strong market position of the Company, with PEPL being the sole supplier of seats to Honda Atlas Cars and fulfilling around two-fourth of the supply of automotive items to two other major market players in auto industry. While this also exposes the Company to concentration risk, the track record of ongoing association with these customers provides comfort. VIS classifies business risk profile of PEPL in the high to medium category, given historical volatility in gross margins, which varies with volumetric offtake. Furthermore, the business risk profile also incorporates exchange rate risk, cyclicality in auto sales due to slow down in GDP growth and political uncertainty. The Company’s bottom line is supported by continuous dividend income from Master Wind Energy, which has been incorporated.

The revision in rating outlook takes into account depressed sales outlook for PEPL’s downstream industry i.e. automobile sector, which is likely to post adverse offtake numbers in FY23. Given import restrictions, requests for new part designs have increased notably YoY, which is expected to bear dividends starting FY24. Nevertheless, materialization of these revenues will depend on availability of raw material, majority of which is imported. Cognizant of the significant dependence on automobile industry, the Company has diversified its business risk by getting into other product lines such as non-woven fabric, foam seats, foam and spring mattresses, sheets and finished foam. The Foaming & Syntactic (F&S) division is producing a fabric used in the making of pampers, face masks, and some agricultural activities as well as safety gowns used in health care. F&S division accounted for ~18% of gross sales in FY22. As per management, with increased focus on F&S division, revenues are projected to notably increase in the ongoing year.

Given the uptick in debt, the Company’s cash flow coverage indicators have come under stress, with both cash flow coverage of debt and debt service coverage ratio contracting during Q1’FY23. Given likely elongation of slower offtake into Q2&Q3’FY23 and further increase in benchmark rate in Nov’22 and Jan’22, the debt service coverage ratio is expected to come under further stress during the ongoing year. Despite strong growth in profitability, which was fully retained into the business, the relative increase in quantum of debt has been higher, as a result of which the Company’s gearing ratio has increased on a timeline. As per management, gearing ratio will be brought down to 1.6x by end-FY23. VIS expects this to be a challenging task and accordingly will continue to monitor changes in the same on an ongoing basis. The assigned rating remains dependent on maintenance of business & financial risk metrics in line with threshold for the assigned rating.

For further information on this rating announcement, please contact Mr. Arsal Ayub, CFA (Ext: 215) or the undersigned (Ext. 207) at 021-35311861-70 or email at info@vis.com.pk





Sara Ahmed
Director

Applicable rating criteria: Methodology – Industrial Corporates (August 2021)
https://docs.vis.com.pk/docs/CorporateMethodology202108.pdf

Information herein was obtained from sources believed to be accurate and reliable; however, VIS Credit Rating Company Limited (VIS) does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information.VIS , the analysts involved in the rating process and members of its rating committee do not have any conflict of interest relating to the rating(s)/ranking(s) mentioned in this report.VIS is paid a fee for most rating assignments. This rating/ranking is an opinion and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. Copyright 2023 VIS Credit Rating Company Limited . All rights reserved. Contents may be used by news media with credit to VIS .