SpiceJet soars 10% on 21% YoY rise in net profit; B737 may return this year

Shares of budget carrier SpiceJet surged as much as 10.27 per cent to Rs 93.4 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday after the airline was back in the black and reported a standalone net profit of Rs 73.2 crore in the December quarter of FY20 (Q3FY20), as against Rs 55 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal (Q3FY19). The airline had incurred a massive net loss of Rs 462.5 crore in the September quarter of the current fiscal.

The profit was after a non‐cash forex charge on account of IND‐AS116 of Rs 75.9 crore without which the profit would have been Rs 149.1 crore, the company said in a statement.

On a consolidated basis, the net profit came in at Rs 78 crore, up 21.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY), from Rs 64.4 crore logged in Q3FY19. 

"SpiceJet has done remarkably well this quarter, despite a substantial profit hit from the grounding of the MAX aircraft, which has impacted our operations and led to additional costs," Ajay Singh, chairman, SpiceJet said in a statement.

"Without in any manner limiting or prejudicing the legal and commercial rights of the Group towards its claims in this regard, certain costs (including, inter alia, aircraft and supplemental lease rentals and certain other identified expenses relating to the Boeing 737 Max aircraft) aggregating Rs 5,372.70 (including Rs 2,464.18 million recorded in the quarter ended December 31, 2019), have been recognised as other income during the ninemonth period ended December 31, 2019," it said. The airline expects Boeing 737 Max aircraft to return by mid-2020.

That apart, revenue from operations jumped 48.32 per cent to Rs 3,533.46 crore for the recently concluded quarter. Total revenue, meanwhile, stood at Rs 3,647.13 crore. The same was Rs 2,486.80 crore in the December quarter of FY19, and Rs 2,845.58 crore in the September quarter of FY20.

For the same comparative period, expenses were Rs 3,844.1 crore as against Rs 2,475.8 crore. On an EBITDA basis, SpiceJet reported a profit of Rs 659.2  crore, while on an EBITDAR basis, the company reported a profit of Rs 761.6 crore. 

On the operational front, Passenger Load Factor came in at 91.9 per cent in Q3, with the fleet size growing to 119 aircraft as on December 31, 2019. 

At 2:44 pm, the stock was trading 7.8 per cent higher at Rs 91.3 per share, as against a 0.55 per cent decline in the Nifty50. Earlier in the day, the stock had hit its 52-week low of Rs 81.6 apiece. A total of 12.49 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.