Kakinada Seaports earns Rs 11 cr operational profits, mulls IPO

This is for first time that the company earned a net operational profit after it took over the port in 1999 from the state government.

Buoyed by the turnaround, KSPL may go public to raise funds for the development of port during the next financial year, according to company sources.

In a surprise achievement, the cargo handled by KSPL during the year 2004-05 almost doubled at 10.55 million tonnes as compared to 5.56 million tonnes in the previous year.

The revenue of the company too went up in a similar fashion with the total turnover reaching at Rs 50.7 crore as compared to just Rs 26.87 crore during 2003-04, registering an impressive growth of 88.76 per cent.

Due to higher revenue realisation, the company's accumulated losses came down to Rs 13.3 crore from Rs 24.3 crore in the previous year.

"We are confident that it will not take much time to wipe out the remaining losses before going for an IPO some time during the next financial year," a senior official of KSPL told Business Standard.

According to him, the marketing strategies adopted by the company, which sometimes mean a price war with the Visakhapatnam port, have yielded in doubling the operations at Kakinda deepwater port.

The company paid a whopping Rs 17 crore towards minimum guaranteed amount (MGA) from its gross profit of Rs 28.04 crore to the state government as per the agreement. So far, it paid Rs 70.6 crore towards MGA to the government from the year 1999-2000.

In terms of revenue contribution, liquid cargo stood on top with Rs 18.1 crore turnover as compared to Rs 14 crore in the previous year. But the growth in bulk cargo, ship to ship (STS) operations and support supply base has been remarkable during the period.

While the revenues from bulk cargo handling rose from Rs 1.9 crore during 2003-04 to Rs 8.2 crore last year, revenues from STS operations have doubled at Rs12.9 crore from Rs 6.2 core in 2003-04.

Phosphoric acid remains the single largest cargo at 6.23 lakh tonnes handled by the port with edible oil(5.90 lakh tonnes). diesel (2.61 lakh tonnes) and Naphta (1.63 lakh tonnes) being the other cargo with bigger volumes handled at the port.

Other achievements of the company include the International Standard for Port Security (ISPS), which was made mandatory for the arrival of any international vessel after the attack on the World Trade Centre in the United States.