Interest cost a dampener: GMR Infra Q1 loss at Rs 66.7 cr

ALSO READ News and Notices about GMR Infra See interviews with GMR Infra Management See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about GMR Infra See previous Results of GMR Infra GMR Infra BSE | NSE 30/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on GMR Infra?

Moneycontrol Bureau

GMR Infrastructure has reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 66.7 crore in April-June quarter of FY12 due to high interest cost and lower revenues from the Delhi Airport, which it operates.

The company has been barred from collecting airport development fee (ADF) by Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) since a final decision on amount collected from passengers toward ADF is yet to be finalised.

On a daily basis GMR missed out on Rs 2 crore from passengers as airport development fee, which partly led to losses of this kind.

 The company had reported a net profit of Rs 28 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Consolidated net sales jumped 51.4% to Rs 1,864 crore from Rs 1,231 crore in the year ago period.

EBITDA went up 32% to Rs 498 crore from Rs 377 crore year-on-year.

However, EBITDA margin of the company declined to 26.72% in the quarter ended June 2011 from 30.65% in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

GM Rao, group chairman, GMR Infrastructure said, "The first quarter of the year started on a strong note. Our airport assets experienced robust traffic growth and our energy assets turned out healthy plant load factor" The company has around 17,000 crore debt as on June 31, 2011.

 During the quarter, the company completed the financial closures of the 800 MW island power at Singapore and the 25MW Solar Power Project in Gujarat.

"Revenues of all operating assets are smartly moving up towards the better profitability. Execution of all projects under construction continues to be on schedule," said Rao.

While rising inflation and consequential higher interest costs are a cause of concern, this situation will not alter the long term viability of the infrastructure projects. The long period concessions of our projects will go through both high and low interest regimes during their life cycle.

However, as in the past, we will freeze the interest costs during their low ebbs by tying up long term finances at fixed interest rates, thus mitigating this interest rate risk, he further added.

Shares of the company surged 2.49% to Rs 30.85 at 11.52 hours.

Read This: Hold GMR Infra: SP Tulsian