New Delhi: State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) will go in for increased borrowings to sustain high dividend payments and capital spending this fiscal, keeping their credit metrics weak, Moody’s Investors Service said on Tuesday.
The rating agency expected dividend payments by the three companies to drop modestly in 2017-18, but remain higher than in 2015-16. The government expects to receive Rs67,500 crore of dividends from all state-owned companies in 2017-18, less than Rs77,000 crore estimated to have been received in 2016-17, but more than double than Rs30,800 crore in 2015-16.