BENGALURU (Reuters) – Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India’s largest private port operator, reported an 82.6% surge in first-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by a jump in cargo volumes and as higher tariffs boost margins.
The company said its consolidated net profit rose to 21.15 billion rupees ($255.4 million) in the April-June quarter, from 11.58 billion rupees a year ago.
Its revenue from operations increased 23.5% to 62.48 billion rupees, boosted by a 12% growth in cargo volumes.
The company — which operates the largest container handling port in India, Mundra in Gujarat — kept its full-year revenue outlook of 240-250 billion rupees, implying year-over-growth of 15%-20%.
Adani Ports said results were helped by EBITDA margins at its ports business expanding by 150 basis points to 72%, mainly due to tariff hikes.
Cargo volume crossed 100 million metric tonnes (MMT) in the latest quarter, putting the company on course for full-year volume of 370-390 MMT, said CEO Karan Adani, son of billionaire Gautam Adani, who controls the Adani group of companies.
The Adani group has been paying off loans it raised through pledged shares of Adani Ports since U.S. short-seller Hindenberg Research raised concerns about the group’s debt levels and alleged irregularities, all of which the group has denied.
Adani Ports’ shares closed up nearly 1% after the results, reversing from losses of about 3% earlier in the session.
The stock has recovered about 65% from the multi-year lows it hit after the Hindenberg report in late January but is still down 5.7% so far this year, while the blue-chip Nifty 50 index has risen about 8%. ($1 = 82.8025 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
