KARACHI (February 13 2005): Kot Addu Power Company's first half-year profit rose by 17.4 percent to Rs 3.687 billion as compared with same period a year ago. The company released financial results for the six months ended December 31, 2004, at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Saturday. According to chairman's review, over the period the power plant generated 4141 GWh electricity, its highest ever of six-monthly output, resulting in a load factor of 68 percent with availability of 83 percent.
The high level of dispatch by Wapda, result in the high load factor, was primarily as a result of increased supplies of gas resulting in a lower energy price to the customer of Wapda. However, the high level of output had no material impact on the company's half-year profit as electrical sales have no influence on the Capacity Purchase payments made by Wapda to the company.
During the six months, the company carried out a number of planned overhauls to its plant. This was in line with the strategic engineering objective to operate and maintain the plant at the highest international standards in order to ensure achieving maximum availability for the customers and in turn underpin capacity income and therefore the return to the shareholders.
Turnover for the period was Rs 13.215 billion, and operating costs were Rs 8.514 billion. Net profit for the period was Rs 3.687 billion compared to Rs 3.140 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
In September, the company received the generation licence from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), which allows the company to meet the formal licensing requirements of Pakistan.
During the period, the company incurred additional expenditure with respect to listing fees and CDC charges associated with the impending initial public offering. These costs, along with the fee for the Nepra licence resulted in an increase of administration and general expenses compared to the same period of last year.
The provisional trading in Kot Addu Power to start from Monday and according to an analyst as per past response from the investors and traders, the scrip would open on higher note as compared with its fixed price. The Privatisation Commission has planned to sell as much as 20 percent stake in the company at Rs 30 per share, and would raise as much as Rs 5.28 billion.
