Tata Power profit before tax falls 23% in third quarter due to lower income

Private power producer Tata Power reported a 23 per cent drop in profit before tax (PBT) for the December 2019-ended quarter owing to lower income.  Losses at its Mundra power plant, the company said, were lower for the quarter.

For the October-December 2019 period, Tata Power reported consolidated PBT at Rs 349.08 crore, 23 per cent lower from Rs 456.27 crore reported in the year-ago period. The firm’s consolidated profit after tax was 12 per cent higher at Rs 246 crore, from Rs 220 crore a year ago. “This is mainly due to lower losses in Mundra and better operational performance across all businesses,” the company said on Wednesday. The Mundra power plant, the company said, saw lower fuel underrecovery in the December quarter.

The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) was at Rs 1,970 crore, compared to Rs 1,820 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Ebitda, the company said, would have been higher by 25 per cent year-on-year in the absence of one-off deferred tax benefit of Rs 272 crore on power purchase agreement signed for Mumbai licence area in the corresponding quarter last year. Segment-wise, the company said, its solar engineering, procurement and construction business won Rs 4,000 crore worth of projects since September 2019. The order pipeline, the company added, was at Rs 7,700 crore, of which Rs 4,900 crore of order is from outside the group.

Ebitda for renewables was pegged at Rs 515 crore, up by 18 per cent from Rs 436 crore a year ago. “Renewables business continues to grow, with Ebitda increasing by 18 per cent, despite lower solar plant load factors due to extended monsoon,” the company said.