Tata Power net profit dips 35%

Tata Power today announced a 34.94 per cent fall in fourth-quarter standalone net profit at Rs 230.69 crore, compared to Rs 354.61 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 20.5 per cent to Rs 1,707.68 crore from Rs 1,416.63 crore. Tata Power sold 3,745 million units, a 7 per cent increase over 3,500 units in the same quarter last year.

For 2009-10, consolidated revenue went up by 5 per cent to Rs 18,854.76 crore (from Rs 17,978.88 crore in the previous year) and net profit surged by 61 per cent to Rs 1,966.84 crore (Rs 1,218.74 crore). The increase was due to forex gains of 358 crore, deferred tax reversal amounting to Rs 139 crore. Last year, there was a provision of Rs 280 crore towards impairment of goodwill. “If all these factors are considered, our growth is in the line of 15 per cent,” said S Ramakrishnan, executive director-Finance, Tata Power.

Tata Power, which has a capacity of 3,000 megawatt (Mw), is looking to add 747 Mw in 2010-11. The company plans to increase its capacity to 25,000 Mw by 2017. The company would use a variety of fuel mix like coal, wind, gas and hydro.

The company, which has coal assets in Indonesia, is also scouting for more coal mine acquisition opportunities internationally. “We will look at such opportunities in Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. But the valuations of these operating mines are going up,” said Prasad Menon, MD of Tata Power.

Operation and maintenance of power plants is another focus area for it. “We will look at O&M contacts in India, South East Asia and the Middle East. We have already bid in some countries in South East Asia,” said S Padmanabhan, ED-Operations, Tata Power.