Adani Ports Q2 net up 24% at Rs 342 cr

Firm reported net profit of Rs 275.56 crore in the July-September quarter

Buoyed by strong sales, Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd today reported over 24% jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 341.83 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013.

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

Net sales of the company jumped by over 47% to Rs 1,045.87 crore during Q2, 2013-14 vis-a-vis Rs 710.81 crore in the year-ago period, Adani Ports said in a filing to the BSE.

Company's Q2 expenditure at Rs 576.73 crore amounted to 55.14% 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 of last fiscal.

In a separate statement, Adani Ports said that its flagship Mundra port continues to be number one domestic commercial port and recorded 21% growth in cargo handling (at 24.62 million tonnes) in the last quarter.

Moreover, its consolidated cargo handling increased by 30% 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."

Adani Ports 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."

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.

The company scrip was trading at Rs 144.40 on the BSE in the last afternoon trade, down 6.6%.