Adani Ports Q4 results: Consolidated PAT jumps 5% YoY to ₹1,159 crore, revenue rises 40%

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (ASPEZ) owners earned a consolidated net profit of ₹1,158.88 crore in the fourth quarter of FY23, registering a growth of 5.1% as against ₹1,102.61 crore a year ago same quarter. Adani Ports concluded its FY23 fiscal with the highest-ever cargo volumes, record investment, and maintaining its net debt to EBITDA ratio well within the guided range.

However, the company's revenue witnessed a much stronger growth of 40% to ₹5,797 crore in Q4FY23, compared to ₹4,140.8 crore.

Also, the Adani Group-backed ports and shipping flagship firm reported a 59% growth in EBITDA to ₹3,270.7 crore in Q4FY23, as against ₹2,057.1 crore in Q4FY22.

Adani Ports' margins also expanded to 56.4% in Q4FY23 versus 49.7% in Q4FY22.

For investors, the company has also declared a dividend of ₹5 per share (250%) for the fiscal FY23. The record and payment dates will be announced in due course.

Read here: Adani Ports announces ₹1,080 crore worth dividend for shareholders; how much investors will get per equity share

Karan Adani, CEO and Whole Time Director of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone said, "FY23 has been a stellar year for APSEZ in operational as well as financial performance. The company has overachieved against its highest-ever revenue and EBITDA guidance provided at the beginning of the year. Our strategy of geographical diversification, cargo mix diversification, and business model transition to a transport utility is enabling robust growth."

FY23 consolidated net profit stood at ₹5,310.18 crore versus ₹4,886.03 crore in FY22. Revenue in the fiscal jumped to ₹20,851.91 crore in FY23 compared to ₹17,118.79 crore.

Karan also said, "Over the last 5 years, APSEZ’s revenue and EBITDA have grown at a CAGR of 16-18%, while the company’s domestic market share jumped 800bps to ~24% in FY23. APSEZ did record investments of around ₹27,000 crore in FY23, which

includes six major acquisitions totaling around ₹18,000 crore and organic capex of around ₹9,000 crore."

As per him, these investments were primarily financed through internal accruals and the cash and cash equivalents held with the company. As a result, the gross debt to fixed asset ratio has declined sharply from 80% in FY19 to around 60% in FY23.

Read here: Patanjali Foods Q4 results: Baba Ramdev-backed firm posts 18% jump in Q4 PAT to ₹349 crore, dividend declared

Key highlights of the FY23 earnings are:

- APSEZ recorded its highest-ever port cargo volumes at 339 MMT in FY23, which is a good ~9% Y-o-Y jump.

- Mundra continues to be the largest commercial port of India with cargo volumes of 155 MMT (150 MMT achieved in a record 355 days vs 365 days in FY22).

- Mundra continues to be the largest container handling port with 6.64 million TEUs in FY23 (10% higher than its closest competitor).

- Logistics rail volumes crossed a milestone of 500,000 TEUs during the year.

- GPWIS cargo volumes grew by 63% Y-o-Y to 14.35 MMT.

In the year, Adani Ports won a total of five bids including two in ports business (mechanization of Berth 2 at Haldia Port and greenfield construction of Tajpur Port) and three in logistics business (Loni ICD, Valvada ICD, and 70 agri silos with cumulative capacity of 2.8 MMT).

Read here: Adani Ports FY24 guidance: Firm expects to reach revenue of ₹25,000 crore, cargo volumes estimated at 390MMT

The company's promoters' pledge was reduced significantly. The promoters have pre-paid the fund-based loans raised through pledging of APSEZ shares, resulting in a reduction of pledged shares to 4.66% as of 31st Mar’23 vs 17.31% as on 31st Dec’22.

Further, despite a record annual investment of around ₹27,000 Cr (the highest ever in the company’s lifetime), APSEZ has managed to maintain the net debt to EBITDA ratio at 3.1x (guided range of 3-3.5x).

Moreover, going ahead, Karan added, "The investments made along with the five bid wins during the year, will enable APSEZ to achieve its targeted cargo volumes of 500 MMT in 2025 and speed up the transition of the business model to a transport utility."

For FY24, Adani Ports expects cargo volumes at 370-390 MMT resulting in a revenue of ₹24,000-25,000 crore and EBITDA of ₹14,500-15,000 crore. Total CAPEX during the year is expected to be ₹4,000-4,500 crore.