Mahanagar Gas Third Quarter Profit Rises 30%, Board Declares Interim Dividend
Mahanagar Gas profit jumps 30 percent during the third quarter.
City gas distributor Mahanagar Gas Ltd. (MGL) reported a 30 percent profit growth in the third quarter of the financial year 2016-17.
The country's second largest compressed natural gas retailer’s net profit for the October-December quarter stood at Rs 99 crore compared to Rs 76.6 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, the company said in its stock exchange filing.
Total income from operations fell 2 percent to Rs 554.3 crore as compared to Rs 565.9 crore in the year ago period.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 30.67 percent to Rs 167.2 crore as against Rs 127.9 crore year-on-year, while the EBITDA margin expanded by 755 basis points to 30.2 percent compared to 22.6 percent last year.
Total volumes declined 1.54 percent quarter-on-quarter to 2.56 million metric standard cubic metre per day on the back of 2.7 percent decline in pipeline natural gas or compressed natural gas. The company attributed the fall in sales volumes to demonetisation of old high-value currency notes in early November last year. However, for the first nine months of financial year 2016-17, MGL’s volumes increased 5.7 percent.
The company reduced gas prices by 3.3 percent in the quarter as it passed on some of the benefits of lower gas prices to customers after the government reduced administered gas prices by 18 percent to $2.5 per million British thermal unit.
The company also declared an interim dividend of Rs 8 per share.
Shares of Mahanagar Gas have surged 118 percent since listing, and ended at Rs 919.7 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, as of Friday.