Petronet LNG shares surge 7% after company posts 90% jump in net profit in September quarter

Petronet LNG shares gained nearly 7 percent on Wednesday after the company reported nearly doubling of net profit in the September quarter on the back of improved margins. Shares of the country’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas, advanced 6.37 percent to Rs 297 on the BSE. On the NSE, it jumped 6.66 percent to Rs 297.75. Net profit in July-September at Rs 1,089 crore was 90 percent higher than Rs 572.89 crore net profit in the same period, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Revenue from operations, however, slipped to Rs 9,361.18 crore from Rs 10,745.34 crore in the second of the previous fiscal year. [caption id=“attachment_4428589” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Stock brokers. Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “Pursuant to the introduction of the lower tax rates for corporates by the government for FY 2019-20, the company has taken the benefit of lower corporate tax rate of 22 percent (as against 30 percent) in the current quarter,” company CEO and Managing Director Prabhat Singh said. “Due to the same, there is a reversal of deferred tax liability of Rs 380 crore.” Lower LNG imports impacted revenues by Rs 900 crore while an over $1 drop in gas prices led to Rs 560 crore cut in revenues. Also, foreign exchange variation cost was Rs 150 crore, he said. Petronet’s Dahej import facility in Gujarat operated at around 108 percent of its expanded name place capacity of 17.50 million tonnes and processed 240 trillion British thermal units of LNG as against 211 TBtus processed a year back. Its Kochi terminal operated at 20 percent of the 5 million tonnes name place capacity. “The company elected to exercise the option of a lower tax rate of 25.17 percent (announced last month by the government),” the notes to the company’s financial results said. “Accordingly, the deferred tax liabilities (net) (DTL) as at 30 June, 2019 and estimate of tax expense for the quarter ended 30 June, 2019 have been remeasured and resultant impact of Rs 376 crore on DTL and Rs 70 crore respectively pertaining to previous quarter have been recognised in the current quarter.” Petronet said its board of directors approved a special interim dividend of Rs 5.50 per share for 2019-20 fiscal year. (With PTI inputs)