Nishat Power profit plunges 52.9pc in Q4

KARACHI: Nishat Power Limited (NPL) on Friday said its profit for the quarter ended on December 21, 2020 plunged 52.9 percent to Rs545.85 million (EPS: Rs1.542).

The power producers had earned a net profit of Rs1.158 billion (EPS: Rs3.272) recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year.

“The decline in revenues and earnings can be attributed to absence of debt portion, lower furnace oil prices and 3.5 percent lower dispatches compared with same period last year,” Rao Aamir Ali at Arif Habib Limited said.

The company did not announce any payouts along with the corporate results.

NPL recorded sales of Rs1.289 billion during the quarter under review, down 44.17 percent compared with the sales revenue of Rs2.309 billion recorded in the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

“On a sequential basis, revenue dropped 53 percent as expected due to zero debt servicing charge included in the capacity payments as the company has retired its long term loan,” an analyst at Taurus Securities said.

Despite stuck receivables, company’s finance costs during the quarter declined significantly to Rs86.35 million, down 73.78 percent as against Rs328.7 million in the previous year.

“Finance cost has declined on the back of lower interest rates along with lower short term borrowings,” Rao Aamir added.

For the half year ended December 31, 2020, NPL posted a net profit of Rs1.46 billion and EPS of Rs4.14 compared with the profit of Rs2.49 billion and EPS of Rs7.05 in the same period previous year.