Petronet LNG

A tax write back of Rs.170 crore is what helped the company shore its bottomline or else, it was another quarter of poor numbers. Its net sales for Q4FY15 dropped 32% (YoY) at Rs.7072 crore and yet, it ended the quarter with a net profit at Rs.301 crore, up 78%. Profit Before Tax was down 46% - that explains it all, giving the ‘credit’ where it is due. Other income rose 84% and that too helped.

Its operating profit was down 43% at Rs.221 crore and margins came down by 30 bps to 3.1%. The poor show can be attributed to the overall poor offtake of long term cargoes at 60 tbtus in Q4, which is down 36% sequentially. This was on account of poor pricing vis-à-vis the spot market which kept buyers away.

The company is trying its level best to better its performance. After leasing out the storage facility, Petronet LNG has started offering services to LNG ships in a bid to generate revenue from different streams to mitigate losses. Though these services are not big money-spinners, it will help generate some revenue for the underutilised Kochi terminalThe 5-mn tonne a year Kochi LNG importer terminal is operating only at one per cent of its actual capacity in the  absence of pipelines to take the imported gas to customers in Bengaluru and Mangalore.