MUMBAI: Essar Ports Ltd on Wednesday said its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended 30 September rose 9% from a year ago on higher net sales and other income.
Net profit rose to Rs.104.97 crore from Rs.96.10 crore a year ago. The company was expected to post a profit of Rs.118.6 crore, according to a survey of analysts’ estimates by Bloomberg.
Total income rose 5.8% to Rs.421.86 crore from Rs.398.78 a year ago. Other income rose 32.8% from a year ago to Rs.48.46 crore. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 5% to Rs.379.50 crore.
“We are on track for completing our capacity addition projects over the next few years. The emphasis continues to be on development of world-class facilities and to complete the projects in hand in time”, said Rajiv Agarwal, managing director of Essar Ports.
On 28 October, the company fixed Rs.93.66 per share as the floor price to acquire 107.2 million shares from public shareholders. At this floor price, promoters will have to shell out Rs.1,004 crore to buy out 25.06% in share capital from the public as a part of the delisting exercise.
In 2014, the Essar Group board approved delisting of subsidiaries Essar Shipping and Essar Ports from the bourses, citing lack of investor appetite and the promoter group’s need for increased flexibility.
Shares of Essar Ports closed down 0.33% at Rs.119.90 on the BSE, while the benchmark Sensex fell 0.14% to end at 26,552.92 points.
Essar Ports is one of the largest port companies of India, with a current capacity of 120 mmtpa (million metric tonne per annum). The capacity is being expanded to 194 mmtpa over the next few years. It has four operational port terminals at Hazira, Vadinar, Paradip and Vizag.
