The Hindu Business Line : Wage revision eats into NTPC’s net profit

Focus on capacity addition: Mr T. Sankaralingam, Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC, and Mr Chandan Roy, Director (Operations), addressing a press conference in the Capital on Thursday. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, April 10 Despite a healthy 7 per cent jump in power generation, NTPC Ltd on Thursday announced a lower-than-expected 4 per cent rise in provisional net profit for 2007-08 at Rs 7,129 crore, mainly on account of a provision for wage revision. Announcing provisional results for the last fiscal, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director Mr T. Sankaralingam said net sales increased 14 per cent to Rs 37,005 crore.

The State-owned company, which generated 20,086 crore units of electricity during 2007-08, plans to double coal imports during the current fiscal. NTPC, which has a generation capacity of 29,144 MW, plans to add 22,430 MW by 2012 and take the cumulative installed capacity to 75,000 MW by 2017.

“New capacities are coming up and they also need coal,” Mr Sankaralingam told reporters. The company will double coal imports to five million tonnes in 2008-09 from 2.5 million tonnes a year earlier, he added.

Capital outlay

For 2008-09, NTPC, the country’s largest power generator, has lined up a capital outlay of Rs 13,588 crore, as against a capex of Rs 8,621 crore during 2007-08. It has tied up for loans worth Rs 21,809 crore for capacity expansion plans from various domestic banks and other financial institutions. The cumulative domestic borrowing up to March 31, 2008 was Rs 20,739 crore, including Rs 4,000 crore bonds placed with LIC.

Mr Sankaralingam said NTPC has been allotted six coal blocks with a production potential of about 48 million tonnes per annum. The company will operate two coal blocks which have a production potential of about 20 MT per annum, jointly with Coal India.

JV with BHEL

On its proposed joint venture with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Mr Sankaralingam said the venture would be incorporated by the month-end. “We have already identified certain projects, details on which will be disclosed after the company commences operations,” he said.

The company’s coal-based power plants recorded a plant load factor of 92 per cent when compared with 89 per cent in the previous financial year. Its gas-based power plants, however, suffered as the company received 11. 7 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas during the year when its requirement was 17.35 mcmd for its plants to operate at 90 per cent plant load factor. “This affected the performance of our gas-based power stations,” Mr Sankaralingam said. NTPC’s Director-Operations Mr Chandan Roy said the company was in talks with State-run oil companies to bid for oil and gas blocks under the next NELP round for auctions of blocks.

Renewable energy sources

By 2017, NTPC plans to produce at least 1,000 MW through renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro power and geothermal projects, Mr Sankaralingam said. NTPC is also carrying out feasibility studies for setting up a 700 MW power plant in Nigeria. The company had promised to set up power plants in the hydrocarbon-rich African nation in exchange for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“We are in talks with the new government (in Nigeria), and things should be ready in another six months,” Mr Sankaralingam said.

The NTPC share was down nearly 1 per cent at Rs 186 at Thursday’s close on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The 52-week high for the stock was at Rs 291 while the corresponding low was Rs 148.50.

Related Stories:
NTPC net slips on staff costs, interest expenses
NTPC net up 15.6% last fiscal, targets 75,000 MW capacity by 2017

More Stories on : Financial Performance | Power | NTPC Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page