Reliance Infra defers Q4 results for second time, Board to meet on Jun 14

Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) has deferred its fourth quarter (January-March) results of the fiscal year 2018-19 for the second time, even as another group company Reliance Power (RPower), after missing its initial deadline, finally announced the earnings on Saturday.

Earlier, RInfra's quarterly result announcement was scheduled for May 30 but the company deferred it to June 7. However, the debt-laden company failed to meet the revised date and has now postponed it to June 14.

The reason attributed by the company for rescheduling is, "The Audit Committee of our company has sought time to review and incorporate the financials of RPower in our consolidated financial statements." RInfra holds promoter stake in RPower.

In order to pare debt, RInfra during the last fiscal 2018-19 had completed the sale of its Mumbai energy business to Adani Transmission Ltd and the same would now get reflected in its annual results.

In the case of RPower, the company's Board meeting, which was to be held on May 29 earlier, was rescheduled to June 7 due to "unavailability of some directors because of indisposition / other unavoidable reasons."

Eventually, on Friday the meeting was held and continued till late Saturday. As per the financials made public on the bourses, the company has slipped into the red. For the quarter ending March 31, 2019, RPower reported a net loss of Rs 3,575.38 crore during Q4 FY2019 as compared to a net profit of Rs 220.67 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

For the full year, the company reported a loss of Rs 2,832.20 crore as against Rs 847.09 crore profit registered during 2018 fiscal.

The loss has been due to one-time impairment of Rs 4,170.19 crore. As per the notes filed with the bourses, during the quarter "the company carried out impairment testing of its assets and provided for impairment aggregating to Rs 1,430.37 crore and considered the same as an exceptional item and adjusted by withdrawing Rs 1,017.02 crore from general reserve pursuant to the composite scheme of arrangement between the parent company, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and four wholly owned subsidiaries (Atos Trading, Atos Mercantile, Reliance Prima and Coastal Andhra Power Infrastructure) approved by the Mumbai High Court."

The auditor in its observation said, "Had such withdrawal not been made, loss before tax for the year ended March 31, 2019, would have been higher by Rs 1,017.02 crore and general reserve would have been higher by an equivalent amount."