GMR Infra's Q2 loss widens to Rs 393 cr

GMR Infrastructure Limited today said its loss for the second quarter ended September 30 widened to Rs 393 crore against Rs 179 crore during the same quarter a year ago due to high interest and losses in energy vertical.

According to a statement issued by the company, gross revenue during the quarter under discussion was at Rs 2,419 crore against Rs 2,399 crore during the same period last fiscal.

GMR had to shell out Rs 684 crore towards interest charges during the July-September quarter as compared to Rs 485 crore in the year-ago period.

Group chairman G M Rao said the macro-economic situation is showing signs of improvement. However, sustaining this will need continued focus on reforms and infrastructure development. It is important to debottleneck crucial areas like power generation and highways, without which the targeted growth rate will be challenging.

"We continue to execute our Asset Light Asset Right Strategy, with the theme of 'develop, build, create value, divest, and reinvest' for our portfolio of assets. At the same time, we continue to explore opportunities with low capex requirements and quick cash generation," Rao said.

The airport operations at Delhi and Hyderabad are stable and both are experiencing healthy growth of passengers, especially international. The Istanbul airport turned PAT positive for the current quarter. On the regulatory side, the group company has already filed the tariff application for Hyderabad airport, he said.

"In our energy portfolio, the lack of gas continues to affect us. This is being offset to some extent as our coal based plants are now stabilising. Recently, we commissioned the second unit of 300 MW at EMCO, the 350 MW second unit at Kamalanga and the transmission unit at Maru," he said.

"In addition, we won a 150 MW power supply bid for Tamil Nadu. We continue to focus on creating liquidity by meticulous management of our receivables and cash flow," he added.

GMR's airport business witnessed profit after tax (before

minority interest) at Rs 57 crore during the second quarter against Rs 28 crore loss during the Q2 of FY13. The group currently manages three airports (two in India and one in Turkey).

The Delhi airport has witnessed 9% overall passenger growth (Y-o-Y) and 19% growth in the international segment, while non-aero revenues and cargo grew at 18% and 5%, respectively over last year.

Hyderabad Airport has seen 6% passenger growth while Istanbul Airport has turned PAT positive for the current quarter.

Negative PAT was seen in energy segment mainly due to non-availability of gas and losses in Kamalanga and EMCO plants, which are under stabilisation, GMR said in the statement.

The segment registered Rs 333 crore loss (before minority interest) during the quarter against Rs 127 crore loss in the same quarter last year.

Shares of GMR were trading at Rs 21.60 apiece down 1.82% on BSE at 1300 hours.