Petronet LNG Q1 PAT seen down 6% YoY at Rs 242 cr

State-owned Petronet LNG is set to announce its results for the quarter ended June 2012. Analysts on an average expect the profit after tax to fall by 5.7% year-on-year and 1.3% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 242 crore in the quarter.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are likely to go down by 3.7% YoY and 0.35% QoQ to Rs 421.5 crore during the same period. Operating profit margin too is seen falling to 6.3% in the April-June quarter as against 9.5% in a year ago period and 6.6% in the previous quarter. But, sales are seen going up by 45% YoY and 5% QoQ to Rs 6,690 crore during the same period. Analysts expect both volumes and marketing margins are low. Volumes are likely to dip about 7% QoQ to 125 TBTU’s due to lower offtake from fertilizer and power plants. About 5 fertilizer plants were offline for maintenance in April-May which impacted offtake. At the end of Q4, Petronet had an inventory of 10 TBTU’s which could boost volumes. So a positive surprise on volumes is possible. Marketing margins on spot cargoes were down by 50% in the March quarter to around 50 cents or Rs 25 per TBTU's. Analysts expect no recovery in marketing margins this quarter.