Essar Ports rose 1.59% to Rs 57.50 at 10:25 IST on BSE after the company said its wholly-owned subsidiary has entered into a concession agreement with Visakhapatnam Port Trust for development and operations of three iron ore berths.
The company made the announcement after market hours on Friday, 13 December 2013
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 27.59 points, or 0.13%, to 20,743.17.
On BSE, so far 287 shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 8,655 shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 58.40 and a low of Rs 57.50 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 100 on 26 December 2012. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 55 on 22 August 2013.
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The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 13 December 2013, falling 0.88% compared with the Sensex's 2.58% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, sliding 21.11% as against Sensex's 4.98% rise.
The small-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 427.89 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
Essar Ports said that Essar Vizag Terminals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has entered into a concession agreement with Visakhapatnam Port Trust for development and operations of three iron ore berths at Visakhapatnam Port on BOT basis over a Period of 30 years. These three berths (two outer harbor berths and one inner harbor berth) will have a combined capacity of 23 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA).
The project will be developed at a cost of Rs 1200 crore over a period of three years. Essar Ports will take over the two outer harbor berths soon and the operation and up gradation of the terminal will happen simultaneously. Vishakhapatnam port handled 12.3 million tons of iron ore during FY13 and this traffic is readily available for these berths from commencement.
Commenting on this Rajiv Agarwal - Managing Director, Essar Ports said: "We will develop the terminal to create one of the most competitive, modernized, world class facilities. This project will significantly increase our third party cargo handling capacity and also boost our presence in the east coast. Iron ore export traffic at Vizag will increase substantially due to the competitiveness of this terminal which will facilitate industrial growth in the region."
This project will increase Essar Ports' total capacity for iron ore export on the east coast to 39 MMTPA with 4 highly mechanized iron ore berths (three in Visakhapatnam Port and one in Paradip Port).
On a consolidated basis, Essar Ports' net profit rose 21% to Rs 97.46 crore on 99% increase in net sales to Rs 685.21 crore in Q2 September 2013 over Q2 September 2012.
Essar Ports is one of the largest port companies of India, with a current capacity of 104 MMTPA. The capacity is being expanded to 181 MMTPA over the next few years. Essar Ports has three operational terminals at Hazira, Vadinar and Paradip. Hazira terminal is an all-weather, deep-draft terminal with 30 MMTPA of dry bulk and break bulk cargo handling capacity. Vadinar is also an all-weather, deep-draft terminal with 58 MMTPA of liquid cargo handling capacity. Paradip dry bulk terminal was commissioned in December 2012 and is an all-weather, deep-draft terminal with 16 MMTPA of dry bulk cargo handling capacity.
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