REL net up profit 17%

BS 200 Scorecard

The Anil Ambani flagship company Reliance Energy Limited today reported a net profit of Rs 186.3 crore for the July- September quarter. This is a 16.8 per cent hike over the company's profit for the same quarter last year which stood at Rs 159.5 crore.

Net sales in this quarter were up by 34 per cent at Rs 1407.6 crore, from Rs 1042.8 crore in the same period last year, while total expenditure shot up 46 per cent to Rs 1230 crore from Rs 839.4 crore in the same quarter last year.

The rise in expenditure was largely to due to interest costs which went up from Rs 553 crore in the same quarter last year to Rs 671 crore in this quarter, while quarter-on-quarter interest costs went up from Rs 459 crore to Rs 671 crore.

This, analysts said, is likely to put pressure on the company's margins which was the lowest in the last six quarters at 13.2 per cent. Much of the interest cost seems to have gone to service picked up towards the end of last quarter, analysts said. The company showed a cash reserves of Rs 6,000 crore with a total debt of Rs 3,000 crore.

Reacting to the results, the company's showed negative movement in the bourses. It closed at Rs 452.40, down 1.82 per cent from the previous close of Rs 460.80.

Analysts pointed out that the huge jump in the EPC business of the company is what has cushioned its bottomline this quarter. The EPC business practically doubled in revenue from Rs 237.3 crore in the last quarter to Rs 502.7 crore in the current quarter.

The total EPC order book stood at Rs 2,366 crore with projects under execution to nearly Rs 10,000 crore. This includes the Mumbai metro rail project, four hydro projects and two toll projects in Tamil Nadu. Analysts, however, pointed out that margins came down from the last quarter - from 19.4 per cent to 12.5 per cent.