NTPC’s Q4 profit dips 71% on sluggish demand conditions

Hit by sluggish demand, especially in later part of the year, country's largest power producer NTPC has reported 71.21 per cent decline in net profit for the January-March quarter of FY20.

It reported Rs 1,252.44 crore net profit for Q4FY20, tumbling from Rs 4,350.32 crore in earlier quarter. The company could have reported losses in the quarter, but thanks to positive balance of Rs 1,852.32 crore in regulatory assets it escaped the blushes.

In Q4FY19, regulatory assets were in negative zone that pushed down the profits. If the profit is calculated discounting movement in regulatory deferral account balance, it was in excess of Rs 10,726.25 crore in the year-ago quarter against Rs 599.88 crore loss.

The NTPC's profit performance is a reflection of struggling power generators as the slump in economic activity and lockdowns have seen thermal power plants struggling to operate at just over half of their rated capacity. The NTPC's performance on the PLF front, however, has been better than the industry average at over 65 per cent.

Mirroring drop in Q4 net profit, NTPC also reported about 13 per cent drop in net profit for FY20 at Rs 10,112.81 crore against Rs 11,749.89 crore reported in FY19.

The company on Saturday declared its financial results for FY20 along with the unaudited financial results for Q4FY20.

For FY20, NTPC's total income stood at Rs 1,00,478.41 crore against Rs 92,179.56 crore in FY19, registering an increase of 9 per cent. For Q4FY20, total income was Rs 28,278.75 crore against Rs 22,545.61 crore in Q4FY19, registering an increase of 25.43 per cent.

The profit before tax (PBT) was Rs 14,465.92 crore in FY20 against Rs 12,672.52 crore in FY19, registering an increase of 14.15 per cent. For Q4FY20, the PBT was Rs 4,383.77 crore against Rs 3,537.17 crore in Q4FY19, registering an increase of 23.93 per cent.

The NTPC board has recommended a final dividend at the rate of 26.5 per cent of paid-up share capital -- i.e. Rs 2.65 per equity share of the face value of Rs 10 each for FY20 -- subject to the approval of shareholders at the annual general meeting. It paid an interim dividend at 5 per cent of the paid-up share capital in March 2020.

NTPC has a group installed capacity of 62,110 MW. In FY20, it recorded the highest commercial capacity addition of 8,260 MW, which included acquisition of 2,970 MW capacity of THDC and NEEPCO. The gross generation of NTPC Group for FY20 was 290.19 billion units against 305.90 billion units during the previous year.

Coal stations achieved a PLF of 68.20 per cent against the national average of 55.89 per cent with an availability factor of 89.67 per cent.