Essar Ports Q2 consolidated Net flat at Rs 96.8 crore

Essar Ports today reported nearly flat consolidated net profit at Rs 96.88 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.
The company's net profit in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal was Rs 97.46 crore, the company said in a filing to BSE.
The company's total income came down to Rs 398.78 crore compared to Rs 685.21 crore in the July-September quarter of last fiscal, the company said.
Commenting on the results, the company's Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal said, "Infrastructure projects are expected to receive a boost with faster approval processes, government's focus on infrastructure, improved business sentiment and financial reforms like project financing and flexible structuring."

He further said that over the next few quarters, the company's focus would be commencing operations at its Vizag facility, completion of Salaya and Hazira expansion and reducing its overall interest costs in a bid to deliver better value to the shareholders.
The company further said that its billed traffic for the July-September quarter was 17.73 MMT (million metric tonnes) as per take or pay agreements whereas actual cargo handled was 12.62 MMT as against 13.01 MMT of cargo handled during Q2FY'14.
Shares of Essar Ports closed at Rs 99.05 apiece on BSE, up 0.05 per cent from their previous close.