India's Azure Power FY Q2 results hit by rising costs

Indian solar power producer Azure Power Global Ltd (NYSE:AZRE) managed to lift its revenues by 28% on the year in its second fiscal quarter through September 30, 2019, but still saw its net loss expand.

The company said on Friday that the fiscal second-quarter loss widened to INR 756.2 million (USD 10.5m/EUR 9.5m) from INR 297.6 million a year before mainly due to increased general and administrative costs and higher net interest expenses. Those were partly offset by the improved operating revenues, which rose to INR 2.85 billion from INR 2.23 billion thanks to the commissioning of new capacity.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the July-September quarter gained 15%, coming at INR 2.08 billion. Thanks to the signing of new power purchase agreements (PPAs), nominal contracted payments as of September 30 rose to INR 566.3 billion from INR 544.3 billion a year before. On the other hand, the cost of operations, excluding depreciation and amortisation, was 44% higher at INR 253.7 million, reflecting increased lease, solar park and land development expenses from newly commissioned projects.

At the end of September, Azure Power had 1,798 MW of capacity in operation, or 77% more than it had at the same time last year. Following the new capacity additions, its power plants produced 610 million kWh of electricity in the second quarter, accounting for a 64% increase as compared to the year-ago period.

For the full fiscal year ending March 2020, Azure Power expects to have between 1,800 MW and 1,825 MW of capacity in operation. Revenues are still seen to range between INR 12.77 billion and INR 13.35 billion.

(INR 10 = USD 0.139/EUR 0.126)

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