NTPC Profit Misses Estimates As Employee Costs Rise
NTPC’s profit fell in the quarter ended December, missing analyst estimates as employee costs rose.
NTPC Ltd.’s profit fell in the quarter ended December, missing analyst estimates as employee costs rose.
Net profit fell 4.4 percent from last year to Rs 2,360 crore, said the company in an exchange filing today. This is lower than the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 2,686 crore. The bottom line was impacted by an over 53 percent surge in employee expenses on account of salary revisions and a rise in leave encashments, NTPC said.
Revenue rose 7 percent from the year-ago period to Rs 20,774 crore, marginally less than the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 21,029.2 crore. This was supported by a five percent rise in the revenue from power generation. Power generation in India, during October-November rose 4.2 percent to 201 billion units.
Operating performance too missed estimates as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose marginally to Rs 5,277 crore while margins contracted 170 basis points to 25.4 percent in the same period.
The board of NTPC decided to pay an interim dividend at the rate of 27.3 percent (Rs 2.73 per share) on the face value of share of Rs 10 each for the ongoing fiscal, said the company in an exchange filing.
Ahead of the earnings announcement, shares fell as much as 0.9 percent to Rs 168.7, the lowest in almost four months.