Adani Ports Q2 consolidated net dips 38% to Rs 6.14 bn on weak rupee

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), the logistics arm of Adani Group, Tuesday reported a 38.10 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 6.14 billion for the quarter ending September.

The company said its financials were hit by fall in Indian rupee which resulted in a market loss of Rs 9.53 billion in the first half of 2018-19 on its foreign currency loans.

The company had clocked a net profit of Rs 9.92 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal, it said in a BSE filing.

"Indian Rupee depreciated by 5 per cent in Q1FY19 and by 6 per cent in Q2FY19. Thus, we have provided mark to market loss of Rs 9.53 billion in H1FY19 compared to a mark to market loss of Rs 470 million in H1FY18 on our foreign currency loans. This has resulted in reporting lower PBT and PAT," the company said in a statement.

Its total income dipped marginally to Rs 29.22 billion during the quarter under review as against Rs 29.62 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.

Total expenditure of the company increased to Rs 21.22 billion in the July-September quarter as against Rs 15.84 billion in the year-ago period.

Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director of APSEZ said, "Amidst fears of trade war and the impact on Indian cargo, we have been able to achieve record cargo throughput of 100 MMT (metric million tonne) in H1FY19. Our string of ports across the coastline of India, strategy to diversify cargo and ensure that all our ports handle all types of cargo has helped us to achieve this mile stone."

He said by its sheer nature, Indian economy will continue to grow in spite of the recent rupee depreciation and oil price hike shocks to the economy.

"We do not foresee any impact on Indian imports and exports. We are truly on course of achieving 200 MMT cargo volume in FY19. Port EBITDA margins are set to increase from 70 per cent to 71 per cent. Automation and using technology to handle cargo, sweating of enhanced capacity and better cargo mix will drive this margin expansion," he added.

The company said for the first time in the history of APSEZ, cargo volume in a half year crossed 100 MMT.

On yearly basis, cargo volume grew by 15 per cent in the first half of FY2018-19 and by 22 per cent in July-September, it said.

The company said ports across western and southern coast registered strong growth.

On a year on year basis, in the first half of current fiscal, Mundra the flagship port of APSEZ grew by 12 per cent.

Other ports in the western coast namely Hazira grew by 23 per cent, Dahej by 36 per cent and Tuna grew by 68 per cent. Kattupalli in south continues to register double digit growth and grew by 22 per cent, it said.

Adani owns and operates nine ports and terminals in India. These are at Mundra, Dahej, Kandla and Hazira in Gujarat, Dhamra in Odisha, Mormugao in Goa, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Kattupalli and Ennore in Chennai.