Suzlon

If one reads only the issued Press Release from the company, one would think that the company had a superlative Q2FY16. The data given is all good – sales volume showed a 64% (YoY) rise at 227 MW. Normalized EBITDA margin at 18%, which is the highest in past five years. Order book is strong at Rs.6812 crore and gross debt reduced by Rs.963 crore sequentially. In fact consolidated net debt , excluding FCCB has come down from Rs.14,820 crore at end of FY15 to Rs.7573 crore at end of Q2FY16 – a reduction of almost 50%. Its consolidated finance cost has indeed come down from Rs.523 crore to Rs.258 crore (YoY). In fact H1FY16 interest outgo has come down 38%.

But despite all this good talk about debt, news on the topline and net profit, which has been conveniently skipped from the Press Release is not good. Consolidated net revenue for the quarter was down 67% (YoY) at Rs.1768 crore and it ended with a net loss of Rs.181 crore v/s net profit of Rs.1047 crore in Q1 (this was thanks only to a one-time gain or else Q1 too would be a loss) and net loss of Rs.656 crore (YoY).  Again, the good part here – HIFY16 ended with a net profit of Rs.866 crore v/s loss of Rs.1407 crore in previous H1.

All in all, despite the loss, the company is doing well, at least on the debt front, if one is able to look past the loss.