Adani Power plunges into red with Rs 4,960 cr Q4 loss over adverse SC order

FY16 profit was Rs 1,085 cr; Firm cites SC rejection of compensatory tariff at Mundra for poor show

Non-recognition of compensatory tariff (CT) for its Mundra plant following the Supreme Court judgement has seen Adani Power Ltd (APL) post a standalone net loss of Rs 4,689.83 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2017. As against this, the company had registered a standalone net profit of Rs 1,012.19 crore in Q4 of previous fiscal 2015-16.

The company's standalone total income for Q4 of FY17 fell by 13.68 per cent to Rs 3,395.46 crore from Rs 3,933.94 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. On an annual basis, while APL posted a standalone net loss of Rs 6,054.34 crore in FY17 as against a net profit of Rs 96.54 crore in FY16, the company's annual standalone total income fell by 12.27 per cent to Rs 11,753.19 crore in FY17 from Rs 13,398 crore in FY16.

On a consolidated basis, APL registered a net loss of Rs 4,960.53 crore in Q4 of FY 2016-17 as compared to a net profit of Rs 1085.05 crore in Q4 of FY 2015-16. The company's fourth quarter consolidated total income fell by 15 per cent to Rs 6,586.42 crore in FY17, from Rs 7,756.96 crore a year ago.  On an annual basis, the company incurred a consolidated net loss of Rs 6,174.10 crore in fiscal 2016-17 compared to a net profit of Rs 550.80 crore in fiscal 2015-16.  

APL's consolidated annual total income too decreased by 9.83 per cent from Rs 25,733.75 crore in FY16 to Rs 23,202.78 crore in FY17.  As per the company, APL sold 16.31 billion units of power in Q4 of FY17 as against 17.06 billion units in Q4 of FY16 while annually it sold 60.19 billion units in FY17 as compared to 64.62 billion units in FY16.

Commenting on APL's quarterly results, Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Power said that consequent to outcome of the SC judgement, the group had engaged with the stakeholders for "possible remedial measures" for long-term sustainability of the Mundra Plant.

"With the Government’s continuous efforts to remove the hurdles faced by the power sector, and encouraging reforms like the new coal linkage policy, we are seeing an improvement in the business environment. Allocation of linkage under the new policy will allow us to access domestic coal, and do away with the need for compensatory tariffs for our power plants going forward," said Adani.

In an official communique, APL stated that the consolidated EBITDA for the year fell by 29 per cent to Rs 6,391 crore from Rs 9,004 crore in FY16 due to lower recognition of CT by Rs 2,002 crore, and lower merchant tariffs.  

Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 1,556 crore, compared to Rs 3,524 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Finance cost for the year was Rs 5,902 crore compared to Rs 5,963 crore in FY16. For the fourth quarter, finance cost was marginally higher at Rs 1,586 crore as compared to Rs 1,547 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year, due to one-time mark-to-market of currency derivatives.

Meanwhile, during the year, APL wrote off receivables pertaining to Compensatory Tariff for Mundra plant, totalling to Rs 3,620 crore that were recognised up to March 2016, as well as other receivables and advances totalling to Rs 457 crore, as Exceptional Items.