India’s Adani Green quarterly profit slumps on higher finance costs

BENGALURU, Jan 23 (Reuters) – India’s Adani Green Energy posted a 99% drop in third‑quarter profit on Friday, as higher finance costs inflated its ​expenses and offset gains from strong power sales and improved capacity ‌utilisation.

Shares of Adani Group’s green arm were down 13.8%.

Group stocks fell 2% to 11% after the ‌U.S. SEC sought court approval to serve summons to Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani by email in a fraud and $265 million bribery case.

For Adani Green, consolidated profit slumped to 50 million rupees ($544,051.88) in the quarter ended December 31, from 4.74 billion rupees ⁠a year earlier.

A sharp ‌27.14% rise in expenses to 29.61 billion rupees and a 35.73% surge in finance costs absorbed most of the company’s topline, ‍even as power sales remained strong.

The company also booked a 1.03 billion rupees from its associates and joint ventures, offering a modest cushion to earnings.

Power consumption in India is expected ​to rise as the economy expands, requiring an estimated 40% increase in ‌coal‑fired capacity to more than 307 gigawatts by 2035, according to government projections.

The country, which currently meets about a third of its power demand from thermal plants, aims to achieve net‑zero emissions by 2070 and plans to more than double its renewable capacity to 500 gigawatts as part of that effort.

Finance costs for ⁠the company include interest on borrowings as well ​as currency‑related gains and losses on its foreign‑currency ​loans and the impact of derivative hedges used to manage those exposures.

The renewable energy arm of billionaire Gautam Adani’s group, which operates ‍solar, wind and ⁠hybrid assets across India, said revenue from power supply rose 21% to 19.93 billion rupees, helped by 5.6 GW of capacity additions over the ⁠past year.

The company said the growth also reflected strong plant performance and the commissioning of new ‌capacity at resource‑rich sites in Khavda, Gujarat, and in Rajasthan.

($1 = 91.9030 ‌Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru)