Thermal power major NTPC announced the financial results for the September ended quarter last Saturday.
The company’s revenue and PAT rose around 1.8 per cent and 38.2 per cent, respectively, beating Bloomberg consensus estimates marginally by around 5.7 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively. There was no major movement in the stock on Monday.
Operational and financial performance
NTPC’s generation capacity increased by around six per cent YoY in Q2 FY24 reaching 90.3 billion units. Its plant availability factor (PAF) for coal based generating stations stood at around 90.12 per cent during the reporting period against 93.71 per cent seen in Q2 FY23 mainly due to plant shutdowns for operations and maintenance (O&M) purposes. Further, its plant load factor (PLF) slightly improved from around 74 per cent to 75 per cent during Q2 FY24 on a YoY basis.
In Q2 FY24, the company’s revenue from operations grew around 1.8 per cent YoY to ₹44,983.3 crore. Its Q2 FY23 EBITDA grew around 16 per cent YoY at ₹12,680.1 crore, and thus, expanding margins from 24.7 per cent to 28.2 per cent on account of lower fuel cost. The company’s PAT grew around 38.2 per cent to ₹4,614.6 crore.
Outlook
The company has spent ₹13,240 on capex out of the ₹28,400 crore planned for the current financial year.
According to the management, the capex in FY25 will be similar to that of FY24.
NTPC added about 1,570 MW of commercial capacity in the first six months of FY24. Renewable energy constituted around 110 MW taking the commercial capacity of the company to 73,824 MW. Further, management is expecting 15 GW operational renewable energy (RE) capacity by FY26 from the current levels of around 3.4 GW.
Within the thermal segment, around 10 GW of capacity is under construction which is expected to be commercialised in the next three years. The company is planning to add around 2 GW of thermal capacity in H2 FY24.
The stock of NTPC is currently trading at a trailing P/E of around 13.5 times and one year forward P/E of around 10.9 times. We maintain the accumulate rating on NTPC on account of assured return business model, consistent dividend payout, attractive dividend yield and strong project pipeline.