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Essar Ports Ltd’s net profit rose to Rs 97.5 crore in the quarter ended September, up 21 percent from same period last year because of increase in revenue mainly from the coal cargo segment.
The company’s net sales grew 14% on year to Rs 398.1 crore in the period under review.
Coal throughput has almost doubled over the recent years, said the Essar Group company in a release. Iron ore volumes have fallen due to the export volumes falling significantly, and have bottomed out, it added.
“There has been an increase in coal traffic so far by 30 percent and is seen increasing in the current financial year,” Rajiv Agarwal, chief executive officer and managing director said at the earnings conference here today.
In the period under review, the company’s total income almost doubled to 685.21 crore from Rs 344.41 crore in the corresponding period last year due to sale of traded goods.
With total expenses standing at Rs 445.29 crore in the quarter ended September, the company’s operating profit at Rs 240 crore was healthier than Rs 225 crore recorded in the same period last year.
The company’s EBITDA margin continued to be in line with previous quarters as it stood at 81 percent.
“Our performance is consistent with the growth targets we have set for ourselves and we are confident of delivering good performance in the coming quarters. We will further strengthen our performance once we excute the projects in hand and third party terminals at Paradip and Vizag,” said Agarwal.
At present, of the total cargo mix of the company, only one percent comes from third party and the balance majority from Essar Group cargo.
Going ahead, Essar Ports plans to ehance the third party mix of the company to 14 percent by FY15 and 34 percent by FY17.
The company has also won the bid for 23 mln tn per annum iron ore terminal at Vizag, which will significantly enhance the third party mix of Essar Ports.
The company said it is behind schedule in terms of increasing its third party cargo share to the total cargo mix mainly because of delays in project execution. “We are concentrating on projects at hand and have no pipeline for bidding,”said Agarwal.
As on Sep 30, the company’s net debt stands at Rs 6,094 crore with about Rs 1,665 crore in projects under construction.
