Adani Ports Sept quarter net up 24 per cent at Rs 341.83 crore

Adani Ports and SEZ has reported a 24 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 341.83 crore for the quarter ended September 30 , buoyed by strong sales.

The firm had reported net profit of Rs 275.56 crore in the July-September period of 2012-13.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said net sales jumped by over 47 per cent to Rs 1,045.87 crore during the second quarter, vis-a-vis Rs 710.81 crore in the year-ago period.

Adani Port's Q2 expenditure at Rs 576.73 crore amounted to 55.14 per cent of its net sales. Besides, its other income also increased by many folds to Rs 257.31 crore. However, the company also reported over 7-times rise in its finance outgo to Rs 411.66 crore, compared to the levels of Rs 57.47 crore of Q2 2012-13

Chief Financial Officer B Ravi said: "We have grown at a stupendous rate quarter on quarter. Our continuous focus has been to increase efficiency by optimising and improving the operations at our ports and the growth is a result of such focused effort."

In a separate statement, Adani Ports said its flagship Mundra port continues to be number one domestic commercial port and recorded 21 per cent growth in cargo handling (at 24.62 million tonnes) in the last quarter. Moreover, its consolidated cargo handling increased by 30 per cent to 28.08 MT in the last quarter.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said: "With Mundra Port firmly established as No 1 port of the country, we have continued our endeavour to maintain leadership position not only in volume and margin growth but also in implementing best practices... Our thrust is to create value for all our stakeholders on multi dimension."

During the quarter, the company created a domestic record in coal handling in a day by discharging of over 1.51 lakh tonne on September 10. Besides, it also surpassed Paradip Port in terms of coal volume in six months by handling 17.87 MT in the first half of current fiscal, the company said.

Cargo traffic at its ports at Dahej and Hazira stood at 2.48 MT and 0.98 MT during the last quarter.

Shares of Adani Ports plunged 6.63 per cent on Friday, to Rs 144.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.