Adani Ports & SEZ braves Cyclone Biparjoy to deliver 80% net profit growth in Q1

• Adani Ports’ revenues went up by 24% to ₹6,248 crore from ₹5,058 crore in Q1 of FY23.
• Cargo volumes grew 12% even as half of its capacity was impacted for six days due to the Cyclone Biparjoy.
• Cargo volumes crossed 100 MMT in Q1 and well on course to achieve FY24 volume guidance, says company.
  

Adani Ports & SEZ reported an 80% growth in its Q1 net profit to ₹2,119 crore from ₹1,177 crore in the same period last financial year. Its revenues went up by 24% to ₹6,248 crore from ₹5,058 crore in the same period.

India's largest integrated ports and logistics company's reported earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) also grew 80% to ₹3,765 crore in Q1, driven by forex fluctuations.

EBITDA includes the impact of forex mark-to-market gain or loss. In Q1 FY24, forex gain was ₹10.93 crore and in the same quarter last year, it saw a forex loss of ₹1201.14 crore.

The company said it was able to deliver its best ever quarterly performance due to cargo volume growth of 12%, and a 200 basis point jump in domestic market share.

This is in spite of the fact that over 50% of the company’s total port capacity was adversely impacted for around six days due to the Cyclone Biparjoy.

“Our continuous efforts on improving operational efficiencies have resulted in domestic ports business EBITDA margin of 72% and logistics business EBITDA margin of 28%, which is higher than the reported margins of listed peers from India,” said Karan Adani, CEO and whole time director of Adani Ports & SEZ.

The monthly cargo volume as its newly acquired assets — Israel’s Haifa Port and Karaikal Port near Chennai touched the ‘one million metric tonne mark’. Its cargo volumes crossed 100 MMT during the quarter.

“We are well on course to achieve our FY24 cargo volume guidance of 370-390 MMT,” added Adani.

These cargo, the company forecasts, will result in a revenue of ₹24,000-25,000 crore in FY24 and EBITDA of ₹14,500-15,000 crore. The total capex during the year is expected to be at ₹4,000-4,500 crore.

Growth in cargo volume for the quarter was led by containers which grew at 15%, while dry cargo grew at 10% and liquids excluding crude grew at 7%). The automobile segment, which is a small proportion of overall volumes, saw a 54% jump in volumes.

The non-Mundra domestic ports volumes grew at 17% Y-o-Y while Mundra volumes were down 2% due to Cyclone Biparjoy. The share of non-Mundra domestic ports increased to 58% in the cargo basket from 53% during the quarter, the company said in its press release.

Ports business EBITDA margin expanded by around 150 bps to 72% with improved realization and operating efficiencies Logistics rail volumes grew by 18% and here too EBIDTA margin expanded by around 150 bps to 28% – aided by increase in cargo volumes and sweating of assets.