Half-year profits rose sharply at Indian electricity provider OPG Power Ventures (OPG) - partly reflecting the early commissioning of the Chenai III power unit. That lifted power output to 842m units of power compared with 932m for the whole of the previous year. Furthermore, the Chenai I and Chenai II plants achieved an average load factor of 99 per cent, up from 94 per cent in the year to the end of March. Indeed, revenue of Rs833m (£8.2m) in September jumped to Rs893m in October compared with Rs4.8bn for the whole of the previous year.
The 80 megawatt (MW) Chenai III plant was commissioned in June and was running at 90 per cent capacity by October. Planned output should support another strong increase in revenue, too, with the 160MW Chenai IV project on schedule and the giant 300MW Gujarat project having completed its first hydro test - that's running three months ahead of schedule.
But for currency fluctuations, profits would have been higher still - that increased the cost of imported coal at the same time as rupee tariffs were held constant and this trend is expected to continue into the second half. However, while the average rupee/sterling rate depreciated by 25 per cent, this was more than offset by underlying revenue growth (priced in rupees) of 180 per cent.
Broker Cenkos has maintained its full-year pre-tax forecast of £17.3m, giving EPS of 3.9p (2.48p in 2013).
| OPG POWER VENTURES (OPG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 65p | MARKET VALUE: | £228m | |
| TOUCH: | 63-65p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 72p | LOW: 45p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 18 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 35p | NET DEBT: | 85% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 17.8 | 2.51 | 0.44 | nil |
| 2013 | 47.7 | 7.64 | 1.56 | nil |
| % change | +168 | +204 | +255 | - |
Ex-div: - Payment: - | ||||
