Essar Oil has posted a loss of Rs 515 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2012. In the comparable quarter last year, the company had clocked a net profit of Rs 321 crore profit.
The loss, among others, was due to provisions made for possible exit from corporate debt restructuring, and lower gross refining margins.
The gross refining margins for quarter stood at $4.60 a barrel compared with $5.29 in the last quarter.
Due to higher sales, the gross revenue for the quarter was up 29 per cent to Rs 19,160 crore compared with Rs 14,846 crore.
In FY12, Essar Oil reported a loss of Rs 4,199 crore compared with a profit of Rs 654 crore in FY11. As on March-end 2012, Essar Oil's net worth came down to Rs 3,613 crore (from Rs 6,538 crore as on March-end 2011).
This is because foreign currency convertible bonds of $262 million (equivalent to Rs 1,340 crore) issued to parent company, Essar Energy, were made compulsorily convertible during Q4FY12.
Due to increase in the refinery capacity, the throughput for the quarter was up 10.4 per cent at 4.03 million tonnes against 3.65 million tonnes last quarter.
Vadinar refinery
Throughput for the fiscal 2011-12 stood at 13.49 mt (14.76 mt) due to 35-day planned shutdown undertaken in the September to October 2011 period.
The Managing Director and CEO, Mr L.K. Gupta, in a media conference call said the Vadinar refinery expansion project has increased the capacity to 18 million tonnes a year, which by September would further go up to 20 mt a year. The expanded capacity would fetch $700 million a year as gross refining margins to the company.
On the issue of high debt of over Rs 15, 000 crore on the company books, Mr Gupta said the company plans to tackle it by pumping in the cash flow, which will be generated when the expanded refining capacity comes on stream.
The promoters would also dilute their shareholding to 75 per cent from 90 per cent in keeping with the SEBI norms. The dilution of stake will happen by March, he said.
rahulw@thehindu.co.in