PowerGrid’s net profit rises to15.5%

New Delhi: Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd announced its provisional net profit for 2007-08 was up 15.5 per cent at Rs 1,420 crore.

The State-run power transmission major said provisional revenue rose 15.1 per cent to Rs 4,700 crore, up from Rs 4,082 crore during the previous year, on the back of performance improvement and increased business from its telecom and consultancy forays.

“Our profit would have been Rs 1,600 crore, but we had Rs 200 crore on account of exchange rate variation,” the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.P. Singh, said while announcing the results.

The company plans a capital expenditure of Rs 8,040 crore during the current fiscal, Mr Singh told reporters here. The investment will fund ongoing and new projects to add around 3,000-MW capacity transmission lines, he said. Last year, the company invested Rs 6,615 crore on various projects.

“Of this, 30 per cent will be met through internal resources and the remaining 70 per cent will partly be funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank and bonds,” the Director-Finance, Mr J. Sridharan, said. The firm is targeting a spend to the tune of Rs 55,000 crore during the 2007-12 period to raise transmission capacity to 37,700 MW, up from 17,000 MW currently. Of this, Rs 16,500 crore will be raised through internal accruals and the remaining through a mix of local and foreign loans, Mr Singh said.

The corporation already signed a $400-million loan agreement from the World Bank and another $200 million from the ADB in the current financial year, which will exhaust its sovereign guarantee loan ceiling of $1,600 million. It is now looking at raising up to $800 million non-sovereign guarantee loan from the World Bank and ADB. The firm also plans to issue bonds in the second quarter of this fiscal to raise money from the local market, Mr Sridharan said.

Power Grid is also eyeing global markets in a major way. “We will work in a big way in Myanmar and Sri Lanka where there is a huge requirement of transmission lines,” Mr Singh said. The company has set a target of Rs 250 crore from consultancy projects for 2008-09.