Adani Group’s remarkable profit surge paves the way for unmatched Green Investments

BILKULONLINE

Ahmedabad, Feb 29: The Adani Portfolio of companies on Thursday reported a record quarterly profit growth of 63.6 per cent (year-on-year), as trailing 12-month EBITDA (as of December 2023) stood at Rs 78,823 crore ($9.5 billion), which is 2.5 times the EBITDA in FY21 and 37.8 per cent higher than FY23 EBITDA.

The company said that high liquidity is maintained with a healthy cash balance of Rs 44,572 crore ($5.4 billion) at the end of December 31, 2023.

The core infrastructure platform generated Rs 66,208 crore ($8 billion) EBITDA over the last 12 months — up 35.4 per cent YoY, the company said in a statement.

The record profit came as domestic and international rating agencies, including S&P Global and Moody’s, have upgraded or positively revised the outlook for all key Adani portfolio companies.

Adani Group Founder and Chairman Gautam Adani has said he will invest an estimated $100 billion into India’s green energy transition over the next 10 years, with plans to scale up to 10 GW of solar manufacturing capacity by 2027.

According to the company, the portfolio continues to remain conservatively leveraged with net debt to EBITDA as low as 2.5 times, debt coverage of 2.1 times, and gross assets to net debt at 2.5 times (as on September 30, 2023).

Higher ratings and healthy cash flows have allowed continued market access, facilitating substantial investments in the year-to-date (April 1, 2023-December 31, 2023).

During this period, various portfolio companies have drawn funds worth Rs 91,290 crore from various sources, including international and domestic banks, and others, the company informed in its financial results.

For Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL), the emerging infrastructure businesses, including the ANIL ecosystem (green hydrogen ecosystem), airports and roads, have picked up momentum over the past few quarters and now contribute 45 per cent of AEL’s total EBITDA.

Another emerging business, the green energy-powered data centre, is also progressing well, according to the company.

ANIL has received COD certification from the Solar Energy Corporation of India for setting up electrolyser manufacturing.

“Solar module sales have more than doubled due to higher exports. The wind turbine generator (WTG) business, with an order book of 142 sets, has already produced 15 sets and delivered 7 since commissioning,” the company said.

At the seven operational airports, passenger movement has increased 23 per cent (YoY) in the first nine months to 65.6 million and is now tracking an annual figure of 85 million.

The greenfield Navi Mumbai airport is well on track to start operations by December this year.

For Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), the operational renewable capacity has increased to 9,029 MW after the commissioning of 551 MW at the Khavda renewable energy (RE) park in Gujarat.

It will be the world’s largest RE park after 30 GW is developed over the next five years and can power over 16 million homes and create 15,200 jobs every year.

Adani Green Energy in December announced that the promoters of the company would infuse Rs 9,350 crore into it through preferential issuance of warrants at a price of Rs 1,480.75 per share.

Adani Energy Solutions Limited (AESL), another portfolio company, has successfully operationalised the critical Kharghar Vikhroli Transmission Line to connect Mumbai to the national grid, taking the total network to 20,422 ckm.

Adani Electricity Mumbai, a distribution subsidiary of AESL, supplied 35 per cent renewable power in the total electricity mix to the city – one of the highest amongst all global mega-cities.

For Adani Total Gas Limited (ATGL), the pipeline network increased to 11,712-inch km, PNG connections to 7.79 lakh, and EV charging stations to 329. A total of 45 new CNG stations were also added.

For the Adani Ports & SEZ (APSEZ) portfolio company, domestic cargo handled grew 23 per cent YoY, achieving a record volume of 311 MT for the first nine months. It is on track to beat the annual volumes guidance.

During the period, Adani Cements added 15 per cent or 8.6 MTPA capacity, taking total capacity to 77.4 MTPA (76.1 MTPA under Ambuja and 1.3 MTPA under AEL).

On the ESG (environmental, social and governance) front, AGEL was ranked first in ESG assessment with an improved score for the second consecutive year, informed the company.