KSEBOA - KSEB Officers' Association

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NTPC Ltd., India’s biggest electricity generator, said profit rose 30 percent in the fourth quarter after selling more power to meet demand. Net income in the three months ended March 31 was a provisional 17.4 billion rupees ($345 million), Chairman R.S. Sharma said in New Delhi. That compares with 13.4 billion rupees a year earlier.

Higher earnings will help NTPC almost double generation capacity by 2012 to meet energy demand and end blackouts in the world’s second fastest-growing major economy. The company’s shares have risen 49 percent from a 52-week low on Oct. 27, compared with a 23 percent gain in the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index.

“The company is gung-ho that in the last two years they’ll substantially increase capacity addition,” Girish Solanki, an analyst at Angel Broking Ltd., said before the earnings were announced. NTPC commissioned 1,000 megawatts and expanded commercial capacity by 2,000 megawatts in the year to March, Sharma said.

Installed capacity, including that of joint ventures, stood at 30,144 megawatts, NTPC said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on April 1. Capacity in the year ended March 2008 was 29,394 megawatts, according to the utility’s annual report.

Generation capacity may climb to 50,000 megawatts by 2012 and 75,000 megawatts by 2017, Sharma said Sept. 17. The company aims to help cut peak-hour power shortages in India, which stood at a provisional 13.8 percent in the 11 months to February, according to the Central Electricity Authority.

Profit for the year ended March 31 rose 5.6 percent to 78.27 billion rupees while net sales rose to 421.82 billion rupees, the utility said in a statement in New Delhi. The figures are provisional and haven’t been audited, NTPC said.


Source - Bloomberg.com