NTPC held a conference call to discuss quarterly and nine months ended results and future growth plans. Chandan Roy, Director, Operations, Mr. A.K. Singhal, Director of Finance, and I.J. Kapoor, Director, Commercial addressed the call.
Highlights of the call
- PLF of coal fired plants in quarter ended Dec’08 was 91.40%, all-India was 77.48% (Quarter ended Dec’07, it was – for NTPC it was 93.23, all-India it was 79.26). There was a change on all-India basis by minus 1.78 whereas in NTPC it was minus 1.83%.
- The PLF of coal stations of NTPC is down by 1.83% for the quarter and by 1.34% for the nine months period ending 31 December 2008 as compared to corresponding periods of previous years due to reduced generation on account of plant maintenance.
- Gross generation for the quarter ended December’08, 52.54 billion units (quarter ended December ’07, 50.73 billion units). Number of units sold during the quarter under review was 49.19 billion units as compared to 47.7 billion units during the corresponding period last year. For nine months period, 150.08 billion units, (corresponding period 147.29 billion units).
- For the fourth quarter i.e. for the period January to March 2009 all stations are expected to generate about 57 billion units
- Number of gas-based units sold during the quarter stood at 52.54 billion units compared to 50.73 billion units corresponding previous quarter. The increase in gas supply was largely due o availability of APM and PMT gas. The company received 11.13 mmscmd of gas during the quarter as against 10.38 mmscmd of gas for Q3 FY’08.
- The company has commissioned till date around 27850 MW as against 26850 MW at the beginning of the year. 500 MW each at Sepath and Tahelgao-2 project has been commissioned during the period. The commercial capacity has been increased from 25912 MW at the start of the year to 27412 as on Dec’08.
- The growth in net profit looks higher due to lower tax as the corresponding previous quarter tax included writeback of Rs 220.4 crore.
- Total capex planned during FY 2008-09 is Rs 12600 crore. Till date the company has spent around 50% of the capex and the remaining 50% of the capex would be spent during the last quarter of the current financial year which has been the normal practice.
- The planned capex for the FY 2009-10 is Rs 18000 crore (excluding the JVs – but includes the contribution towards equity to JV)
- The company plans to add 2800 MW, 5410 MW and 10980 MW capacities in FY’10, FY’11 and FY’12 respectively.
- Cash and bank balance is around Rs 16541 crore.
- Loan stands around Rs 31567 crore. The cost of borrowing is around 7.125%.
- Joint venture agreement was signed on January 14, 2009 with Steel Authority of India, RINL, Coal India Limited, NMDC to form a joint venture company namely International Coal Venture Pvt for securing metallurgical coal and thermal coal assets from overseas and leverage their – to leverage their domain knowledge and human capital for international mining business development.
- Coal supply for the nine months ended stood at 92.404 MT (89.35 MT for Q3 FY’08). Nearly 10.25 M tons of coal procurement plans are on schedule for the next year. This includes 2.12 MT coal lying at port and 0.95 MT imported coal received.
- The margins were under pressure largely due to increase in wage cost due to wage revision as per the Sixth pay commission. All other cost increases of coal by 15% y.o.y, gas by 43% y.o.y and naptha by 15% y.o.y are pass through items.