NRBBL manufactures a wide range of bearings in India which find use predominantly in the auto sector. The company specialises in the manufacture of needle roller bearings, bushes, cages and loose needle rollers. The company registered an operating income of Rs 1,065.7 million and profit after tax of Rs 117.6 million in 1997-98. Meanwhile, the rating of Industrial Ltd's Rs 75 million debenture issue has been downgraded to `BBB' from`A', Crisil said.

The revision in the rating reflects primarily the decline in margins due to the demand in the power equipment industry being short of the supply. This is because of a low offtake from the two principal consumers, state electricity boards (SEBs) and industries. The margins were also negatively affected by higher interest costs arising from higher borrowings to finance higher working capital requirements and due to borrowings taken to fund the new project. Offsetting this has been the growth shown by the company in its income in its traditional transformer range, in spite of the general slowdown seen in the power equipment industry. The recently announced technical collaboration between IML and Skoda should also help the company in its business, a crisil release added.