Sarda Energy is in focus. CRISIL has upgraded the long-term credit rating on the company as well as on its wholly-owned subsidiary. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Padam Kumar Jain, director, and CFO of Sarda Energy, discussed the company’s outlook.

Talking about demand, he said, “If you see the demand position for the secondary sector, we don't see much of a problem in demand. There is a good demand, the material is moving perfectly all right and prices are maintained.”

On raw material prices, he said, “As far as price realisations are concerned, pellet prices have definitely come down. So the prices which had reached up to 18,000, are now hovering around 11,000 to 11,500. So, iron ore has seen a major correction on the raw material side. As far as finished prices are concerned, those are more or less maintained at normal levels. As far as silicon, manganese are concerned, prices are hovering around Rs 95,000 to Rs 1,00,000 and those are stable at the current level. In the first quarter, it was somewhere about Rs 85,000 on an average.”

On cost of borrowings, Jain said, “Our present cost of funds is below 8 percent and it has come down maybe by 1-1.50 percent in the last one year. In case of Madhya Bharat Power Corporation, our cost of borrowing earlier was 13 percent, now it is somewhere in the range of 11 percent and it will come down further. Now we got the provisional tariff approval, the pricing will come down further.”

On debt, he said, “Consolidated debt as of June 30, was in the range of Rs 1600 crore, now it has come down, maybe by Rs 50 to 100 crores in this quarter. Till the end of the year, this may go down a bit because our capex plan is also in line, we have been spending on the coal mining project and other projects.”

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(Edited by : Dipika)