Indian Companies Won’t Have Balance Sheet Distress due to Covid-19, Says Veteran Banker KV Kamath

Former NDB chief KV Kamath on Tuesday said Indian companies have already started making a comeback and are largely debt-free.

In an exclusive interview with Network18, Kamath said, “If I look at 2000-2010 and today, these companies are by and large free of debt. So they will go through pain, but they will come back quickly. I do not think they will have balance sheet distress, they will not end up having broken balance sheets and indeed we find some of these companies now coming back to speed in terms of what they are producing.”

The veteran banker highlighted that the rural economy has been the driver for revival of the economy.

“First, I will look at agriculture because that to us is the core of India – that still is a large employer though its share of GDP has dropped over the years. I find agriculture has come back very quickly, rural India has been less affected by the health challenges and connection to the market has transformed dramatically. So, farm space, I am more optimistic about, the farm employment,” he said.

The former chairman of Infosys also expressed confidence in India’s e-commerce space.

“The e-commerce industry has been the backbone for these last four troubled months in terms of health channels so they have provided extreme degree of support to the economy,” he said.

“Several indicators that are coming back to normal,” he added, “are indicating that the rebound is faster than what most of us thought including myself and again data with the bankers indicate that; for example, two-wheelers are back to 70-80 percent of what they were. Tractors are back to 80-90 percent of what they were and mortgages other than in urban areas are also back to 70-80 percent where they were.”

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