Essar Ports Ltd has announced a 101% jump in its consolidated net profit, at Rs 90.4 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2012.
The revenues for the company in the given period also rose by 33%, at Rs 367 crore as against Rs 276.8 crore in the same quarter last year. Pure earnings, or EBITDA, went up by 34% to Rs 295 crore. The company said that it handled 14.34 million tonne cargo in the third quarter, up by 44%, its highest in a three month period ever.
Operating margins for the quarter stood at over 80% because of the highly mechanised operations, Shailesh Sawa, CFO, Essar Ports said.
Rajiv Agarwal, managing director, Essar Ports said that with the commissioning of 16 million tonne iron ore terminal at Paradip Port, the company’s total capacity has reached 104 million tonne. The company is adding 54 million tonne more capacity which is expected to be completed by 2015. He said, “With the commissioning of the Paradip Dry Bulk Terminal and significant progress in our ongoing projects, we have completed almost 80% of our committed capital expenditure plan.”
Agarwal further said that the company has signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Gujarat government during its recently concluded Vibrant Gujarat summit to invest Rs 10,000 crore more in the state.
The MoUs are for the ports of Salaya and Hazira. He said that the company is looking at increasing the capacities at these ports beyond the current projections.
At present, Hazira is a 30 million tonne port and the company is expanding it to 50 million tonne. The Salaya port of 20 million tonne is expected to be complete by December 2013.
The MoUs with the Gujarat government will take these capacities beyond the current projections, Agarwal said, adding, “This investment will take 4-5 years time.”
The total debt on the books of Essar Ports at the end of December quarter stood at Rs 5,677 crore. The company does not see reduction in its debt going forward as it is in capacity expansion cycle currently.
