LONDON (Alliance News) - Mytrah Energy Ltd shares rose on Thursday despite reporting a fall in profit as higher finance costs offset a material rise in revenue during the year, but it said more projects are coming online this year to significantly boost its power generation capacity.
Mytrah shares were trading up 9.1% to 45.97 pence per share on Thursday morning.
The independent, renewable energy power producer in India said its pretax profit in 2015 dropped to USD461,505 from USD2.3 million in 2014 as higher financing costs offset a rise in revenue to USD74.7 million from USD69.6 million.
Finance costs rose to USD51.2 million from USD42.9 million, partly offset by a USD2.3 million year-on-year rise in finance income, derived from interest, security deposits and proceeds yielded from disposals.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to USD65.3 million from USD56.2 million, with operating profit rising to USD48.9 million from USD44.8 million despite higher depreciation and amortisation charges of USD16.4 million compared to USD11.4 million in 2014.
"Increasing our wind power generation capacity by 10% in 2015 to 583 megawatts, with 33 wind turbines installed across 3 projects, was a significant feat and this expansion has continued since the year end, reaching 616.5 megawatts at present. The growth has been delivered on budget and is ahead of schedule so that we now expect to have a capacity of 783 megawatts at the start of wind season 2016; 40 megawatts ahead of our previous guidance," said Chairman and Chief Executive Ravi Kailas.
That capacity rise to 783 megawatts from the current 616.5 megawatts will be driven by the 220 megawatts worth of projects currently under construction, including the 50.4 megawatt Bheseda project, which was commissioned and connected after the end of the financial year to the end of 2015.
"The government of India's focus on the renewable energy sector set to continue through 2016 and beyond. We expect a significant number of investment opportunities for the company as there is an increased activity across the sector, and a number of states taking positive steps to support renewables," said Mytrah.
"We are currently evaluating a number of potential opportunities for further investment, and will invest selectively, providing the terms are attractive for our shareholders," Mytrah added.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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