GMR Infrastructure had a 40 per cent rise in net loss for the first quarter of 2012-13 to Rs 94 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 67 crore during the corresponding period last year. The company continued to face a crippling shortage of liquefied natural gas to fuel its power projects and had continued pain at Delhi International Airport, which it manages.
The company, based in this city, operates power projects, highways and airports. It took a one-time tax asset reversal at one of its power plants which feeds on gas, denting the margins further. Revenues were, however, up 23 per cent to Rs 2,562 crore and operating profit at Rs 643 crore was up 36 per cent.
Revenue at the flagship airports business were up 22 per cent to Rs 1,032 crore, despite the flat passenger growth, as the central government allowed it to collect increased aero charges.
Due to this 334 per cent increase in aero charges, GMR was able to reduce its losses at the airports division by 47 per cent to Rs 90 crore.
The management added the losses were expected to drop sharply, as the full effect of the rise in aero charges would be reflected from the second quarter.
The power generation business, which has 833 Mw of operational assets, posted a net loss of 27 crore as against a profit of Rs 48 crore during the corresponding period last year. The company took an asset reversal of around Rs 100 crore, further hit by low availability of gas for two of its plants.
| DOWNSIDE Segment results (Rs cr) | |||
| Q1FY13 | Q1FY12 | % change | |
| Revenues - Airports | 1,284 | 1,061 | 21 |
| Revenues - Power | 746 | 695 | 7 |
| Revenues - Highways | 105 | 100 | 5 |
| GMR consolidated numbers (Rs cr) | |||
| Q1FY13 | Q1FY12 | % change | |
| Revenue | 2,562 | 2,090 | 23 |
| Ebitda | 643 | 473 | 36 |
| Net loss | 94 | 67 | 40 |
Despite this, revenues were up seven per cent at Rs 746 crore. “Another 1,500 Mw capacity will be operational during the year, coal-fired, and will significantly add to revenues. We are in constant dialogue with the government for import of gas from global locations and, hopefully, we should be progressing on that,” the management of GMR said.
NACIL, Kingfisher run up dues worth Rs 400 cr towards GMR
NACIL (National Aviation Company of India Limited) which runs Air India and United Breweries Group owned Kingfisher Airlines have total outstanding of close to Rs 400 crore towards GMR Airports, which operates Delhi and Hyderabad Airports. While NACIL owes Rs 363 crore, Kingfisher Airlines owes a little over Rs 32 crore.
In addition to this, GMR has outstanding of Rs 180 crore from other carriers though they are within the norm of payment window of 180 days. The outstanding from NACIL and Kingfisher is however beyond this window.
The highways unit is also expected to add to revenues during next year, as three road projects totalling 310 km will start to earn, beside the six operational assets.
The net debt is Rs 33,600 crore on a gearing (ratio of debt to equity) of 2.97. It has been proving a growing concern for the company, as its finance charges grew by 29 per cent to Rs 480 crore during the quarter. However, the management stressed that almost all the project-related debt has been ring-fenced to the assets and the cash flow. “When situations such as unavailability of gas for power projects crop up, banks are pretty much understanding and are helping us. We are confident of servicing the debt,” said A Subba Rao, group chief financial officer.
The company is also to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore as and when an opportunity arises through the equity route, to retire some of the debt raised earlier.
