R-Infra net up 5.3%

The ADA Group’s Reliance Infrastructure today said it planned to convert about half of its projects under development to revenue generating ones by the end of this financial year.

Eleven projects in roads, metro and a transmission line, which have a combined project size of Rs 19,200 crore, will be commissioned by 2010-11, said Lalit Jalan, Director of R-Infra. Four of these, including the Delhi airport expressway, are expected to be commissioned in the next quarter. It is developing 25 projects, with a total size of Rs 40,000 crore.

The company has posted 5.3 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 375 crore in the first quarter as compared to Rs 356 crore in the same quarter last year. Its revenue increased by four per cent to Rs 3,823 crore as compared to Rs 3,670 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

“These numbers have come after taking a hit of Rs 140 crore because of the stay order,” said Jalan, referring to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission directive on rate increases for its Mumbai power distribution business. The stay order came in June 2009 after public agitation over the increase of power prices, after the regulator permitted an increase in rates. The regulator had a hearing a few days earlier and is expected to give a final judgement soon.

Reliance has cash and cash equivalents of Rs 8,100 crore on its balance sheet. It plans to raise around Rs 8,000 crore as debt towards financial closures of its projects this financial year.

The company’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) segment has an order book at Rs 18,530 crore.

Around 65 per cent of this is from internal orders and this is expected to increase. Jalan said the margins of this sector will remain in the 8-10 per cent range.

The company is working on its plans to build two cement plants in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, with a capacity of five million tonnes each. It company has raised Rs 1,855 crore debt for the MP project and expects it to be commissioned in about two-and-a-half years.

“There is competition in every sector of infrastructure. Around 35 companies were competing in bids for a distribution project recently. We are not the most aggressive bidder any more,” said Jalan.