The Board of Directors of state-owned natural gas explorer and producer GAIL (India) Limited at its meeting today approved the raising of ₹25,000 crore through the issuance of secured or unsecured redeemable non-convertible bonds. The decision to raise funds comes as PSU plans to move into chemicals and clean energy and diversify from its current natural gas transmission and distribution business.

“The board of directors at its meeting today, i.e. August 17, 2022, among other things, approved to borrow funds together with the funds already borrowed from the company up to a sum of 25,000 crore in one or more tranches,” one reads stock exchange report.

The money will be raised through a rupee term loan up to a limit of ₹25,000 crore. The company could raise funds through foreign currency term loans or external commercial loans. It may also raise funds through the issuance of rupee denominated, listed or unlisted, or secured or unsecured non-convertible bonds.

GAIL India stock closed down 0.15% today at ₹134.90, broadly in line with the sector which fell 0.05%. PSU stock fell after hitting an intraday high of ₹136.1. He fell today after two consecutive days. GAIL is trading higher than the 5-day moving averages but lower than the 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages.

GAIL reported a 116% increase in revenue to ₹37,572 billion in the April-June quarter of FY23 compared to ₹17,387 billion in the same quarter last year, primarily due to increased gas marketing and transmission volumes, better marketing spread and higher product pricing. The company’s profit rose 91% to ₹2,915 billion from 1,530 crore last fiscal year. GAIL’s consolidated revenue rose 116% to £37,942 billion, while PAT was £3,253 billion in the first quarter of FY23.

GAIL operates about 14,500 km of long-distance gas pipelines, which make up almost two-thirds of the country’s existing network. Average gas transmission through this network during FY22 was 110.98 MMSCMD compared to 104.20 MMSCMD in the previous FY20. GAIL holds a 68% share of the country’s natural gas transport. It is also working on an additional 5,000 km of natural gas pipelines to increase transmission volumes.

Among recent projects, GAIL commissioned the 533 km section of Jagdishpur Haldia’s Bokaro-Angul Pipeline and the Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) in April-June. This put 1,642 km of JHBDPL, popularly known as Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga, into service.

In line with the government’s National Hydrogen Energy Mission, GAIL is building a green hydrogen production unit with a daily capacity of 4.3 tons in Vijaipur, Madhya Pradesh. The plant will produce green hydrogen using polymer electrolyte membrane technology based on water electrolysis.

GAIL is also setting up a 10MW PEM electrolyser to produce green hydrogen and has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL) to build a 500 KLPD bioethanol plant in Gujarat.