Adani Ports’ March Quarter Profit Declines, Missing Analyst Estimates

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd.'s profit fell the most in four years on higher tax outgo in the quarter ended March.

Net profit fell 20.6 percent to Rs 927 crore as compared to the same quarter last year, Adani Ports said in its filing with the stock exchanges. The bottom line fell short of the Bloomberg consensus estimate as tax outgo increased to Rs 396 crore from Rs 12 crore in the comparable quarter as Mundra Port came out of the tax holiday period, Adani Ports said in a separate press release.

Revenue rose 42.6 percent to Rs 3,182.8 crore on a yearly basis, surpassing the consensus estimate of Rs 2,626 crore.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the March-ended quarter fell 44 percent to Rs 1,931 crore, while the margin contracted to to 60.68 percent from 59.76 percent.

The company expects the operating margin to increase by 100 basis points each year as it places more emphasis on increasing capacity utilisation and improving operational efficiences, Karan Adani, chief executive officer and whole time director of Adani Ports said in the release.

Other Highlights:

• Container volumes grew 20 percent to 5.1 million
• Cargo volumes up 6 percent to 45.4 million metric tonne

Shares of the company fell nearly 2 percent to Rs 393.55 apiece after the earnings announcement.