EXIM Bank says repayments unaffected by West Asia conflict

Mumbai: There has been no impact on client repayments because of the Middle East conflict, a top official from the EXIM Bank of India has said.

Indian companies' presence in the Middle East is concentrated in the construction or infrastructure sector, and their business may have suffered in the last month due to the challenging situations, its managing director and chief executive, Harsha Bangari, said.

"...very interestingly, the repayment scenario has been extremely good," Bangari told reporters on the sidelines of a bank event on Wednesday.


She said the resilience of the Indian companies, whose business may be impacted by the war, comes from diversity in the revenue sources beyond the Middle East.

However, if the war prolongs, there can be some challenges which we may have to face, she said.

"So the activity has definitely come down. So there we could look at some impact on the top line," she said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 37th Commencement Day Annual Lecture, which was delivered by Japanese professor Keiko Honda here.

New project awards will get hit because of the conflict, and the execution timelines for existing projects will also get stretched, she said.

Bangari added that once things normalise, there will be bigger opportunities for Indian enterprises because of the reconstruction efforts which will be mounted.

The ongoing episode of rupee depreciation will help expand EXIM Bank's rupee balance sheet because a bulk of its business happens in USD or foreign currencies, she said.

There can be a shift in preference for borrowers given the current circumstances, and the preference for rupee loans may go up, she added.