42% jump in EBITDA at Adani Group

New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate clocked a 42 per cent year-on-year growth in pre-tax profit, as businesses ranging from airports to power and sea ports registered impressive growth, the group said on Wednesday.

All-time high EBITDA of Rs23,532 crore in April-June was almost equal to the full-year FY19 (April 2018 to March 2019 fiscal year) EBITDA of Rs24,780 crore, Adani group said in a statement.

The conglomerate that spans 10 listed companies ranging from flagship incubator Adani Enterprises Ltd to ports business (Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd), renewable unit (Adani Green Energy Ltd), power utility (Adani Power Ltd), electricity transmission firm (Adani Energy Solutions), and city gas business (Adani Total Gas Ltd), had a net debt of Rs18,689.7 crore after accounting for a cash balance of Rs42,115 crore. Core infrastructure and utility platform, which generates stable and assured cash flows, generated EBITDA of Rs20,233 crore, accounting for 86 per cent of the total portfolio EBITDA.

“This gives a high level of stability and multi-decadal earnings predictability and visibility. The robust profits have resulted in the portfolio gaining a very strong liquidity position,” it said. Adani group has been concentrating on improving operational performance as a comeback strategy after being hit by a damning report of a US short-seller in January this year.

The Hindenburg report released on January 24, alleged accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens, triggering a stock market rout that had erased close to $150 billion in the market value at its lowest point. Adani Group has denied all allegations by Hindenburg and its comeback strategy has included recasting its ambitions, scrapping acquisitions, pre-paying debt to address concerns about its cash flows and borrowings, and scaling back its pace of spending on new projects.

Promoters have sold stakes in five of the 10 listed companies to investors such as GQG Partners, helping stocks recover some of the losses. In the statement, the group said incubation under flagship Adani Enterprises continues to be a success story with airports, green hydrogen and other businesses seeing their profits almost double year-on-year. With EBITDA of Rs 1718 crore, these businesses contributed 7 per cent to the portfolio EBITDA.

“The robust portfolio performance was primarily driven by the renewable power business under Adani Green, infrastructure businesses under Adani Enterprises, and cement businesses under Adani Cement,” the statement said.

Adani Green reported EBITDA of Rs 2,200 crore, a 67 per cent rise y-o-y. This was on the back of an increase in operational capacity by 43 per cent to 8,316 MW. The cement business also showed a strong operating performance because of cost optimization and improving synergies. EBITDA per tonne increased to Rs 1253 from Rs 888 in June 2022 quarter and Rs 1079 in March 2023 quarter. As a result, EBITDA of the cement business grew 54 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1,935 crore. However, Adani Enterprises Ltd's existing business saw EBITDA fall by 12 per cent due to a correction in coal prices and volume stabilisation. The FMCG business saw a drop of 64 per cent as a consequence of high-cost inventory, the statement said.

Under Adani Enterprises Ltd, the airport business witnessed a 27 per cent growth in passengers to 21.3 million. Road business constructed an additional 79.8 lane km while solar modules volumes increased 87 per cent to 614 MW. A 17 MW data center at Chennai is now fully operational. Adani Energy Solutions, previously known as Adani Transmissions Ltd, increased the electricity transmission network to 19,788 circuit km on the addition of 550 circuit km. Adani Gas added seven CNG stations to take the total to 467. Also, 141 EV charging points were installed and 7 lakh households now received piped cooking gas from the firm. Adani Ports and SEZ recorded the highest-ever quarterly cargo volume of 101.4 mn tonnes while Adani Power commissioned 1,600 MW of Godda ultra-supercritical power plant. Adani Wilmar - the group’s FMCG firm - crossed 1.49 mn tonnes volumes during the quarter, delivering a 25 per cent year-on-year growth. The cement business which comprises recently acquired Ambuja Cement and ACC, saw sales volumes rise 9 per cent to 15.4 mn tonnes.