IRB Infrastructure Developers has reported a 13.24 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to ₹208.01 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2019 as against ₹240 crore in the year-ago period due to increase in interest costs across some of its projects but has a strong order book for the 2020 fiscal.

Group CFO Anil Yadav told BusinessLine that interest expense has gone up 50 per cent for three projects in Rajasthan, Solapur and Aurangabad, where projects are ongoing and the interest was charged to the balance sheet.

For the entire fiscal, IRB Infra’s consolidated net profit went down by 8 per cent from ₹920 crore to ₹849.96 crore when compared to the previous fiscal.

However, total consolidated income for January-March quarter rose to ₹1,998.91 crore from ₹1,432.10 crore in the year-ago period, a 40 per cent increase, on the back of construction projects and an increase in Build Operate Transfer (BOT) projects. For the whole year, income went up by 18 per cent to ₹6,903 crore from ₹5,863 crore in the 2018 fiscal.

“It was yet another remarkable year as we clocked 18 per cent revenue growth, even with transfer of seven operating assets to IRB InvIT last year, and a successful completion of Pune-Solapur concession this year,” IRB Infrastructure Chairman and Managing Director Virendra D Mhaiskar said in a statement.

IRB’s InvIT, which reported its numbers a fwe days back showed a growth in profitability and revenues in its first full year performance and Vinodkumar Menon, CEO & Whole Time Director, IRB Infrastructure said in a statement that stakeholders would appreciate that the company performed well, even in the difficult business and market scenario across all sectors.

Further, IRB Infrastructure has a total order book of ₹11,000 crore for the next 2 years. “We expect the pace of awards to strengthen with elections now being over and large number of projects already lined up by NHAI. A very welcoming move from the Authority includes increased proportion of projects being considered on BOT model,” Mhaiskar added.

Also, the company has portfolio of 23 projects which includes 20 BOT and 3 HAM (hybrid annuity model) projects. HAM is a model wherein the government will contribute to 40 per cent of the project cost in the first five years through annual payments (annuity). The remaining payment will be made on the basis of the assets created and the performance of the developer.

Total expenses rose to ₹1,637.71 crore during the quarter under review from ₹1,047.62 crore in the corresponding quarter a year-ago.

In terms of segment revenues, Build Operate Transfer (BOT) projects for the year saw an increase in revenue from ₹1,820.68 crore to ₹2,084.75 crore. Construction also saw an increase in revenue from ₹3,855.59 crore to ₹4,601.85 crore.

Similar the unallocated corporate segment clocked in revenues of ₹20.4 crore, an increase from ₹17.82 crore posted in the 2018 fiscal.

IRB Infra shares closed at ₹136.75 but the stock has given a minus 42 per cent return over the last 12 months, as per data.