NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, FEB 9
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) on Tuesday reported a 16.22 percent increase in its consolidated profit to Rs 1,576.53 crore for the third quarter ended on December 31, 2020.
The country’s largest integrated logistics player had clocked a consolidated profit of Rs 1,356.43 crore in the corresponding period a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.
Its total consolidated income increased to Rs 4,274.79 crore in the third quarter from Rs 3,830.43 crore in the year-ago period.
The company’s total expenses during the quarter under review increased to Rs 2,258.62 crore, compared to Rs 2,091.40 crore in the year-ago period.
Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director of APSEZ in a statement said, “The strong and lasting recovery at APSEZ has been the cornerstone of our journey in the recent past. It’s a proven certitude that our business now operates closer to a pure-play utility. Our portfolio of assets, increasing market share in India, and preeminence of our network with leadership positions have an unparalleled value proposition.”
He said the team at APSEZ continues to innovate and establish operational excellence as the key differentiator, thus improving margins.
“For instance, at KPCL, which was acquired in October, we have improved the EBIDTA margin from 55 percent to 71 percent. APSEZ is well on course to achieve 500 MMT (metric million tonnes) of cargo throughput by FY25,” he said.
APSEZ will be investing in the logistics and warehousing business with increased investment in Tracks, Rakes as well as land for developing multimodal logistics parks and warehousing facility, he said.
“Our businesses and future investments are aligned to sustainable growth with a focus on preserving the environment. We continuously recognize and sponsor more sustainable options to manage and reduce the effect on the environment. “Our environmental footprint strategy seeks to address greenhouse gas emissions and waste throughout the entire operation as we strive to continually strengthen our environmental practices and become carbon neutral by 2025,” he added.
APSEZ said it acquired Krishnapatnam Port in October 2020, which is now consolidated, hence the financial numbers of Q3 FY21 are not comparable to Q3 FY20.
In October-December 2020-21, Krishnapatnam Port handled a cargo volume of 10 MT. “Revenue and EBIDTA in Q3 FY21 was Rs.473 cr. and Rs.336 cr. with an EBIDTA margin of 71%,” the statement said.
“Increased cargo volume and balanced cargo mix enabled Port EBITDA to grow by 38% from Rs 1,705 cr. in Q3 FY20 to Rs 2,351 cr. in Q3 FY21. Port EBITDA margin for Q3 FY21 increased by 140 bps to 71.7%.” Logistics business has reported an EBIDTA of Rs 67 crore in the third quarter of FY2020-21 compared to Rs 58 crore in the third quarter of FY20, an increase of 16 percent, the company said.
Ports across all three regions registered strong growth as western ports grew by 25 percent and eastern ports grew by 10 percent, the company said. Mundra port registered a growth of 25 percent during the quarter led by container and liquid cargo including crude. While container grew by 38 percent, liquid cargo including crude grew by 22 percent.
Mundra Port continues to be the largest container handling port in India for the third consecutive quarters and has handled 1.59 Mn TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) during the quarter.
Mundra port handled 213,000 MT of LPG and 567,000 MT of LNG, which is a growth of 50 percent and 10 percent respectively over Q2 FY21, the company said.
Other western ports of Dahej and Hazira grew by 29 percent and 14 percent respectively while Dhamra port on the east coast registered a growth of 10 percent, it said.
Five new container services were added, two at Mundra, two services at Hazira, and one at Kattupalli. The incremental container volume on account of these additional services will be approximately 340,000 TEUs on an annual basis, it said.
“Our logistics operations remain resilient. In Q3 FY21 it handled rail volume of 81,061 TEUs vs 89,433 TEUs in Q3 FY20,” the statement said.
APSEZ, a part of Adani Group is the largest port developer and operator in India with 12 strategically located ports and terminals — Mundra, Dahej, Kandla and Hazira in Gujarat, Dhamra in Odisha, Mormugao in Goa, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and Kattupalli and Ennore in Chennai and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh that represents 24 percent of the country’s total port capacity.
The company is also developing a transhipment port at Vizhinjam, Kerala, and a container Terminal in Myanmar.
