Rama Krishna Sangem
Adani Total Gas reported a jump in first-quarter profit on July 29 Monday, helped by strong demand for the cleaner-burning compressed natural gas (CNG), sending its shares 2% higher. The Adani group company’s consolidated profit rose 15% to Rs 172 crore (around $21 million) in the three months ended June 30, marking its sixth straight rise in quarterly profit.
The gas distributor’s CNG sales volumes, which account for over half of its total sales, jumped 20% during the quarter with the addition of 24 new stations across the country. Demand for CNG, used mainly in the transport sector, comes amid a government push to rein in vehicular pollution. India’s fuel consumption in the quarter was also driven by strong industrial activity in the run-up to the general elections. [O/INDIA2]
Revenue from operations rose to 12.39 billion rupees from Rs 1,135 crore a year ago. Sales volume in the company’s piped natural gas (PNG) segment, its second-biggest, rose 11% to 77 million standard cubic meter of gas per day. The rise in profit comes even as Indian city gas distributors bought spot LNG – the key raw material for CNG – at higher import prices amid a decline in domestic output.
This Adani Total Gas results have come on a day when Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi trained his guns on a gang of six – which includes Adani for monopolizing Indian businesses. Speaking on the union budget, Rahul Modi government has laid a trap like Padma Vyuha of Maha Bharat, on the people of India. This trap is intended to benefit a few big businesses like Ambani and A dani. Late, he agreed to remove Ambani and Adani from the list.
On the cement front too
On the other hand, competition is heating up in India’s cement space as Gautam Adani’s expansion spree sets off a race with fellow billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s UltraTech Cement Ltd. to build capacity and snap up assets. The clash of titans is likely to intensify as the deep-pocketed tycoons seek to dominate supplies of a building material that is critical to sustaining India’s infrastructure boom.
Adani’s ambitious upstart and the sector leader UltraTech have already done six deals in less than two years, with Birla’s cement maker announcing the seventh on Sunday to control a coveted regional player. At least half a dozen smaller rivals are still up for grabs
