Essar Ports today reported a marginal rise of 4 per cent in consolidated net profit to Rs 94 crore for the quarter ended December 31, largely due to a subdued growth in sales.
The Essar group firm had reported a net profit of Rs 90.42 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
Its income from operations rose by nearly 3 per cent to Rs 376.86 crore in the last quarter vis-a-vis Rs 365.97 crore of Q3FY'13, the company said in a filing to the BSE.
Of this, its main business, port and terminal services, reported a growth of 4.87 per cent to Rs 376.86 crore. However, Essar's income from fleet operating and chartering business declined by nearly 62 per cent to Rs 6.66 crore in the last quarter.
Total expenditure of the company was Rs 144.12 crore in the last quarter, amounting to 38.24 per cent of its income from operations. Its finance cost rose by 14.35 per cent to Rs 144.59 crore, while it reported an other income of Rs 21.93 crore in the last quarter as against Rs 1.03 crore of Q3FY'13.
"Our financial results highlight the consistent performance we have shown over the past few years. In the coming quarters, we expect to handle higher cargoes driven by increased off-take from anchor customers and an increase in third-party cargo," Essar Ports Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal said in a separate statement.
He further said that the company is currently focused to complete its existing projects, which will double its volumes in the next 2 to 3 years.
Essar Ports currently has three operational port terminals at Hazira, Vadinar and Paradip, having a total capacity of 104 MTPA. The company is in the process of expanding the capacity to 181 MTPA over the next few years, including that of a 14 MTPA coal terminal at Paradip port which was facing some issues.
However, the company said that construction of the coal terminal at Paradip is "expected to start soon, as the Supreme Court has dismissed all the petitions filed by port users occupying the land during December 2013. The Paradip Port Trust has initiated action to vacate the land earmarked for the terminal."
During the quarter, Essar Ports also signed the concession agreement with the Vishakhapatnam Port Trust for developing three iron ore berths of 23 MTPA capacity. Accordingly, it will "take over the two outer harbour berths soon and the operation and upgradation of the terminal will be undertaken simultaneously".
Following the results, shares of the company rose by 1.55 per cent to close at Rs 59.05 apiece on the BSE today.
