APSEZ Q1 net up 31% at Rs 836 crore

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) today reported a healthy 31 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 835.71 crore for the quarter ended June 30, riding on growth in cargo volumes.

The firm, led by Gautam Adani, had clocked a net profit of Rs 638.93 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing.

Total consolidated income rose by 7 per cent to Rs 1,826.58 crore in April-June quarter from Rs 1,714.78 crore during the same quarter in 2014-15.

Total expenses were higher at Rs 937.80 crore from Rs 850.81 for the year-ago period.

APSEZ CEO Karan Adani said: "A healthy growth in cargo volumes, operational efficiencies and our strategy to increase bulk cargo volumes, other than coal volumes have enabled us to report all round growth in our financial numbers."

"The bottomline growth is a result of the firm's immense focus on controlling borrowing costs along with maintaining high EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin," he added.

"Going forward, coastal shipping, commissioning of CT4, further growth in volumes at Kattupalli will be our focus areas," Adani said.

Cargo volume handled on a consolidated basis was 42.33 million tonnes (MT) in Q1 2016-17 from 39.61 MT in the year-ago period, a 7 per cent growth, APSEZ said.

"We have once again outperformed all India port growth, while Indian cargo growth was 4 per cent, Adani Ports grew at 7 per cent," it added.

APSEZ shares were trading up 0.17 per cent at Rs 240.00 a piece in the afternoon session on BSE.