GAIL (India) falls 6% as Q4 profit misses forecast

The company posted net profit of Rs 260 crore in Q4FY17 against Rs 832 crore in Q4FY16.

GAIL (India) dipped 6% to Rs 368 on BSE at 09:38 am after the company reported 69% year-on-year (YoY) decline in its March 2017 (Q4FY17) net profit to Rs 260 crore. The company had reported profit of Rs 832 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

“The fall in net profit was due to impairment of investments of Rs 783 crore in the Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd. The quarterly profit without the impact of the above impairment is Rs 1,043, which is higher by 25% on YoY basis,” GAIL (India) said in a release.

Analyst on an average had expected profit of Rs 1,136 crore for the quarter.

Net sales of the company during quarter under review grew 15.7% at Rs 13,422 crore against Rs 11,596 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

The LNG terminal there is running at 1.5-2 mt capacity while the power plant is running at 500 MW capacity. The company has already started producing power in one block. The company has indicated that the impairment was necessary as per the accounting standards.

The Ratnagiri gas-based power plant has been running lower than its 2,000 MW generation capacity. This is due to the high cost of power produced from gas-based generation facilities. The investment impairment has been due to the lower offtake and generation, Angle Broking said in a client note.

The counter has seen huge trading volumes with a combined 2.28 million shares have already changed hands on the BSE and NSE in first 23 minutes of trade.