IndiGrid March-quarter net down 31% to Rs 69 crore due to acquisitions

Infrastructure investment trust IndiGrid on Thursday reported a 31 per cent drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 68.69 crore for the March quarter, impacted by expenditure on acquisitions.

The consolidated net profit of the India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) was Rs 99.67 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, it said in a BSE filing.

"The PAT (profit after tax) is lower because of one-time expenditure for BDTCL (Bhopal Dhule Transmission Company Ltd). Interest cost is higher because of recent acquisitions of over Rs 5,000 crore in Q4 (January-March)," a company official said.

Total income rose to Rs 514.09 crore in the quarter from Rs 335.32 crore in the same period a year ago.

For the full fiscal 2020-21, net profit was Rs 334.40 crore as against Rs 505.72 crore in 2019-20.

Total income increased to Rs 1,714.15 crore as compared to Rs 1,278.59 crore in 2019-20.

The board approved distribution of Rs 3.10 per unit, comprising Rs 1.51 in the form of interest, Rs 0.52 as dividend and Rs 1.07 as principal payment for Q4 FY 21 (January-March 2021).

The record date for this distribution will be June 2, 2021. Payment will be made on or before June 11.

With this, IndiGrid has distributed Rs 45.77 per unit (DPU) to its investors over the last 16 quarters since its listing, a total return of over 78 per cent on the issue price. Total return is sum of all distributions since listing and change in price till May 25, 2021.

Its Chief Executive Officer Harsh Shah said: "FY 21 has been a transformative year for IndiGrid with over Rs 75 bn (billion or Rs 7,500 crore) acquisitions across different types of assets. In addition to that, we have raised DPU guidance 4th time since IPO in FY18 to 12.75 Rs/Unit on the back of accretive acquisitions."

This is in line with its strategy of providing superior risk-adjusted returns by delivering predictable DPU and growing it by 3 to 4 per cent year on year, he added.

"The vote of confidence accorded by the investors through the recent success of Rights and Public NCD issue further increases our confidence in our ability to maintain a robust balance sheet," he said.

The board also approved raising of debt of up to Rs 1,050 crore through various sources, including term loans, private placement of non-convertible debentures (NCDs), or any other applicable mode.

IndiGrid is an Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) in the Indian power sector. It owns 13 operating projects consisting of 40 transmission lines with more than 7,570 ckms (circuit kms) length and 11 substations with 13,550 MVA transformation capacity.

IndiGrid has assets under management (AUM) worth Rs 20,500 crore. The investment manager of IndiGrid is majority owned by KKR.