Bangalore: GMR Infrastructure Ltd posted a loss of about Rs 366 crore for the quarter ended March, primarily because of the hits it took in its airports and energy business.
GMR runs the Delhi and the Hyderabad airports. India’s airports regulator, the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority, recently notified a 346% increase in charges at the Delhi airport, less than the 774% rise the company had sought.
“With that (revision of tariffs), we are looking to overcome some of the losses. It will begin from the current quarter but the full impact will be visible from the July-September quarter onwards,” GMR group’s chief financial officer Subba Rao Amarthaluru said on Wednesday after announcing the results.
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Subba Rao Amarthaluru talks about the projects the GMR group has planned for the fiscal and the question of foreign currency loans
In the year-ago March quarter, GMR had a loss of Rs 1,007 crore mainly as it set aside Rs 939 crore to account for the declining value of an investment. Excluding exceptional items, GMR’s quarterly loss widened to Rs 381 crore from about Rs 54 crore a year earlier.
GMR’s power business, which accounts for most of its revenue with six operating assets, saw sales decline 14% from a year ago to Rs 514 crore. The business posted a loss of Rs 127 crore against a profit of Rs 38 crore a year earlier. “We don’t know how long we will have to wait for gas. It’s a kind of force majeure situation. Our units were running at 45% plant load factor,” Amarthaluru said.
The company will add 1,650 megawatt (MW) of generation capacity in the current fiscal year, he added. Commissioning of the 687 MW power project at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh will depend on the availability of gas, he said, adding that 93% of the work on the plant has been completed. The company owns gas, hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants, and has interests in renewable energy assets. It has also built and operates several stretches of national highways, among other things.
In highways, the company is looking to bid primarily for large projects, Amarthaluru said.
The company’s highways business, which has six operating assets, posted a quarterly profit of Rs 55 crore, against the Rs 1 crore it posted in the March quarter last year.
The company is looking to infuse a second tranche of equity for the highways it owns and will look at both private equity and stake sales in its existing road projects as options, Amarthaluru said. The company has to invest total equity of Rs 2,300 crore, of which the second tranche—one-third of that sum—is due this year.
By the next quarter, the company will begin work on the Rs 7,700 crore project to widen the 555-km long Kishangarh-Ahmedabad highway into six lanes, Amarthaluru said. The company recently secured Rs 5,400 crore in loans for the project. GMR shares fell about 4% to Rs 19.85 on BSE on Wednesday, while the Sensex ended down 0.77% at 16,312.15 points.
rahul.c@livemint.com
PTI contributed to the story.
