Adani Enterprises posts Rs 138 cr Q1 pre tax-loss as Covid hits volumes

Maintains capex guidance of Rs 10,000 crore for the year

Gautam Adani-promoted Adani Enterprises reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 137.54 crore in the June quarter, as volumes took a hit due to Covid and ensuing lockdowns.

The company in its statement said volumes across segments were impacted owing to lower power demand and logistics issues due to Covid-19 pandemic. For the quarter under review, the company reported a loss before tax and exceptional items against a profit before tax and exceptional items of Rs 442.12 crore in the same period a year ago.

For the June 2020 ended quarter, profit after tax (PAT) attributable to owners was Rs 30 crore, against Rs 601 crore a year ago. Revenue from operations halved to Rs 5,265.19 crore, from Rs 10,561.37 crore a year ago.

Volumes for its integrated resource management business was down 60 per cent to 7.4 million tonne (MT), against 18.5 MT a year ago. For the mining services business, production was at 2.2 MT, down 24 per cent from 2.9 MT in June 2019 ended quarter, volume for solar manufacturing was at 78 megawatt (Mw), less than one third of 236 Mw a year ago.

In its management commentary, Adani Enterprises said it will continue to pursue it Rs 10,000 crore planned capital expenditure for the current financial year. In relation to cost-cutting, company executives said there is no plan to implement any such measures including any retrenchments.

While Adani Enterprises expects volumes for most businesses to recover in the next 3-4 months, air traffic recovery is a few years away. The management does not expect traffic to return to pre-Covid levels before 2023-24. Adani Enterprises will, however, go ahead with its planned investments in the airport business and focus on non-passenger revenue. The company has won bids for six airports at Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Jaipur and Guwahati, of which concession agreements have been signed for Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow.

On the group’s Australia coal mine project, Jugeshinder Singh, chief financial officer said, “Carmichael project rather than being a mining business, is now a support business for Adani Power only.” Adani Enterprises looks to source a third of the group’s coal requirements, or 10 million tonnes, from the Australian asset. Singh added,” We are now an infrastructure and utility company.”