No better time to be an Indian: Gautam Adani shares experience from Davos
Our Bureau
Mumbai/Davos
A year after a damning report by a U.S. short seller made allegations his conglomerate, billionaire Gautam Adani on Thursday said the “trials and tribulations” of the past year have made the Adani group stronger as it continued on growth path, improving asset base and launching key projects, including the Dharavi redevelopment.
In a column in a leading newspaper, he said the Adani group raised Rs 40,000 crore of equity (equal to debt repayment for the next two years) through stake sales in some firms, repaid Rs 17,500 crore of margin-linked financing, and trimmed debt.
Sustained focus on operations yielded the highest-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter of current fiscal, he said. Most of the listed group companies have recouped losses induced by the Hindenburg report.
Meanwhile, Adani Power has reported a sharply higher consolidated profit after tax during the October-December quarter of the current financial year 2023-24 at Rs 2,738 crore versus only Rs 9 crore reported during the same quarter of the preceding year.
The Adani Group company attributed the rise in net profits to improved EBITDA. EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, is an alternative measure of a company’s overall financial performance.
The company’s consolidated profit after tax for the three quarters of 2023-24 is higher by 230 per cent at Rs 18,092 crore versus Rs 5,484 crore it reported same period last year. The company similarly attributed the growth to higher EBITDA.
Coming to the company’s consolidated continuing total revenue for the October-December quarter, it was higher by 72 per cent at Rs 13,405 crore versus Rs 7,773 crore during the same quarter of the preceding year, mainly due to greater sales volumes.
In three quarters of 2023-24 combined, the consolidated continuing total revenues were higher by 40 per cent at Rs 37,173 crore versus Rs 26,604 crore last year, attributable to greater sales volumes. Further, consolidated continuing EBITDA for the October-December quarter more than tripled to Rs 5,059 crore versus Rs 1,479 crore last year, due to greater revenues and lower import fuel prices.
During the April-December period, the consolidated continuing EBITDA more than doubled to Rs. 13,516 crore versus Rs 6,210 crore same period of 2022, driven by higher revenues and lower import fuel prices.
Adani Power Ltd, a part of Adani group of companies, on Thursday announced the financial results for the third quarter that ended in December 2023.
The ongoing brownfield capacity expansion of 1,600 MW at Mahan is on track, while we are moving ahead to extend our leadership further inorganically. We are excited to be a part of nation-building efforts through provision of reliable electricity supply from our highly efficient power plants while keeping sustainability goals at the forefront of our agenda,” the CEO further noted.
Adani Power said that its domestic power sales volumes were driven by growing power demand across India and offtake under Power Purchase Agreements (“PPAs”) was further supported by falling prices of imported coal and alternate fuel.
The Adani Group company has an installed thermal power capacity of 15,210 MW spread across eight power plants in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, apart from a 40 MW solar power plant in Gujarat.
Earlier, Gautam Adani said there was no better time to be an Indian as he left Davos after participating in the annual World Economic Forum 2024. In a long LinkedIn post penning his experience during his stay in Davos and the interactions he had with global executives and thought leaders, Gautam Adani concluded that India’s message and the actions it has taken resonate with the spirit of multilateralism and inclusiveness.
The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting took place in Davos from January 15-19, 2024. Union Ministers Hardeep Puri, Smriti Irani, and Ashwini Vaishnaw represented India in the Forum.
At the 54th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, global leaders met to rebuild trust, generate new ideas, and create partnerships to advance solutions to the challenges the world faces. “This was the Davos where my fellow countrymen in attendance would have left with their heads a little higher than usual. No better time to be an Indian!” he wrote on his LinkedIn timeline. After all the deliberations he had with various leaders at Davos, Gautam Adani feels that the consensus was that India is well on its way to approaching the USD 30 trillion GDP target by 2050.
