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| Edited By: Rajiv Ranjan Singh |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 04:51 AM IST
High cost of coal pushed Adani Power in the red as the company posted a Rs358 crore loss in the third quarter ended December as against a net profit of Rs109 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The company which operates a 2,650 mw thermal plant in Mundra, Gujarat, imports its entire coal requirement.
About 33% of its coal comes from Bunyu mines in Indonesia, which is owned by Adani Enterprises, while the rest 67% is procured at higher prices from the open market.
The coal imported from mines other than Bunyu is costing Rs2.50 a tonne as against Rs1 a tonne from the Bunyu mines in the last few quarter, denting profitability, company officials said.
Prabal Banerjee, chief financial officer, Adani Power, told DNA that the coal available with Bunyu mines was not adequate to feed the company’s plant.
“We source 67% of our coal requirement from other mines at an average rate of $100 per tonne, which has escalated costs by Rs280 crore,” he said. Average coal cost from Bunyu mines is $36 per tonne.
In the third quarter, Adani Power’s total coal cost moved up from Rs175 crore to Rs736 crore in the last one year, also because the company fired up additional units at the Mundra plant.
Banerjee said the additional depreciation on new units had an impact of Rs62 crore on balance sheet even as it provided for Rs205 crore forex exchange loss during the quarter. He said that unit 5 and 6 at the Mundra plant were ready but the Gujarat Urja Vidyut Nigam Ltd had not erected transmission tower, forcing the company to operate on a low plant load factor (PLF) of 66% as against 85% in the same period of the last fiscal.
“Last year only two units were in operation; this year all our six
units are ready but transmission lines are not in place which is forcing us to work on low PLF,” Banerjee said.
Adani Power’s net sales doubled to Rs1,059 crore during the reporting quarter as against Rs503 crore a year ago.
The Ebitda margin for the December quarter was at 20% as against 55% in the third quarter. For the nine months ended December, the company clocked a net loss of Rs4 crore compared to Rs349 crore of the corresponding period last
fiscal.
Net sales during the April-December period more than doubled to Rs2,951 crore against Rs1,251 crore in the same period previous year.
