Indian solar power producer Azure Power Global Ltd (NYSE:AZRE) saw its net profit plunge to INR 46 million (USD 614,000/EUR 520,000) in its first fiscal quarter through June 2020 even as previously-commissioned capacity helped it grow revenues for the period.
The company said on Thursday that its first-quarter net profit fell from INR 171 million a year earlier, blaming a one-time charge related to the refinancing of debt, as well as higher income tax expenses. Those effects were partly offset by the contribution of new capacity that was added to the company’s fleet of assets after June 30, 2019, which in turn lifted the quarterly revenues by 16% on the year to INR 3.94 billion. This total includes INR 73.1 million in revenues brought by the recovery of safeguard duties and goods and provisions for power purchase agreements (PPAs).
The new capacity that came online in the reporting period was only 1 MW because of the coronavirus disruptions.
In line with the improved revenues and lower general and administrative costs amid the COVID-19 setting, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to INR 3.3 billion from INR 2.55 billion.
More details about the company’s fiscal quarter performance are available in the table below.
| Amounts in INR million |
Q1 FY 2020/21 |
Q1 FY 2019/20 |
| Operating revenues |
3,940 |
3,389 |
| Total operating costs and expenses |
1,397 |
1,464 |
| Operating profit |
2,543 |
1,925 |
| EBITDA |
3,298 |
2,548 |
| Net profit |
46 |
171 |
| Net profit attributable to company's shareholders |
39 |
178 |
| Cash flow to equity (CFe) for operating assets |
1,641 |
1,130 |
At the end of June, Azure Power had 1,809 MW of capacity in operation, an increase of 12% from end-June 2019. It noted that the virus crisis has disrupted the commissioning deadlines of its projects under construction but most of this capacity will go live ahead of the revised schedules.
Power production in the April-June quarter amounted to 883.9 million kWh, or 26% more than in the year-ago period.
The Indian firm guided for second-quarter revenues ranging between INR 3.2 billion and INR 3.4 billion. Also, it reiterated its projections for revenues of INR 15.8 billion-16.6 billion and capacity in operation of 2,650–2,950 MW.
(INR 10 = USD 0.134/EUR 0.113)
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Azure Power Solar Power Plant (Photo: Business Wire)
