NTPC net marginally up in fiscal 2005

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the largest power producer in the country, today announced a marginal 0.59 per cent increase in net profit from Rs 5,260.8 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 5,292 crore in 2004-05 as per the provisional results.

However, it said, that accounting for the effect of one-time settlement scheme, the net profit figure in 2003-04 was Rs 3,986.9 crore.

The company has lined up investments of Rs 8550 crore in 2005-06, of which Rs 5826 crore would be borrowings from the domestic and overseas markets.

"We shall be raising up to Rs 4,526 crore from banks, financial institutions, Life Insurance Corporation, while Rs 1,300 crore would be raised through external commercial borrowings in the form of euro bond issue," said C P Jain, chairman and managing director.

The Euro bond issue of the corporation would be announced soon, but the time would depend upon cash flows and the market conditions, he added.

The company reported a 17 per cent hike in revenues from sale of energy to Rs 22,199 crore (provisional) against Rs 18,851.9 crore in 2003-04.

The return on capital employed and return on net worth during 2004-05 were 11.83 percent and 13.21 percent respectively compared with 12.93 per cent and 14.94 per cent during 2003-04, including the effect of one-time settlement scheme of earlier years.

The company, which is looking at entering the LNG business to obtain fuel for its plants at Kawas, Gandhar and Kayamkulam, was looking at long term arrangements with equity contributions, Jain said.

"LNG price is linked to the international oil markets, so the spot price is high currently. But our view is that if we can delink the supply form current prices, we can get gas at a cheaper rate," Jain said.

The company plans to put in equity in liquefication, whereby it would get return as an equity holder also, and was inviting foreign firms to invest in regassification in India.

"We are looking at Australia, Iran, Malaysia, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Yemen, Qatar, Nigeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Iraq is not ruled out either because they are working on methane," Jain said.

The power generation major had also asked the government for parallel distribution, allowing it to distribute electricity in areas in the vicinity of the plant, Jain said. The capital expenditure incurred in 2004-05 was Rs 5,297 crore compared with Rs 4,580.7 crore in 2003-04, up by 15.64 per cent.

Construction of projects totalling 9470 MW was in progress, as was work on 2600 MW (of 1300 MW each) capacity from gas projects. Expansion at Kawas and Jhanor Gandhar would start soon.

The corporation recorded generation of 159.11 billion units in 2004-05, an increase of 6.67 per cent over the generation of 149.16 billion units in 2003-04. With a share of 20.15 percent in the total installed capacity of the country, NTPC generated 27.09 percent electricity during 2004-05.

During 2004-05, the corporation added capacity of 2000 MW. The total installed capacity of NTPC at present is 23,749 MW. The company has planned capacity addition of 9160 MW during the Tenth Plan and envisages addition over 17000 MW during the Eleventh Plan.