India's Adani Green Energy Q1 profit surges on strong power sales

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Adani Green Energy said on Thursday its first-quarter profit almost doubled from a year earlier, helped by strong energy sales and increased operational capacity, sending the company's shares surging.

The company, part of billionaire Gautam Adani's ports-to-power conglomerate, said its consolidated profit rose to 6.29 billion rupees ($75.1 million) in the quarter, from 3.23 billion rupees a year earlier.

The quarter included a unusually severe heatwave nationwide that, according to Elara Securities, boosted the country's base power demand by 10%.

Adani Green's energy sales increased by 22% year-on-year to 7,356 million units in the quarter.

The company's operational capacity currently stands at 11.2 gigawatts (GW), of which solar energy alone accounts for almost two-thirds.

Its solar capacity utilisation factor (CUF), which measures generation capacity to installed capacity, clocked a growth of 25.4% in the quarter, while the CUF in its wind power business jumped 36.2%.

That helped revenue from operations jump 31.1% to 28.34 billion rupees.

Its expenses rose by a comparatively lower 17.4%, while its shares of profit from joint ventures and associates more than tripled to 1.80 billion rupees, also helping boosting the company's net profit.

Adani Green's shares rose as much as 7.8% to a session-high after the results, before receding slightly to end 6% higher.

Last week, peer JSW Energy reported an 80% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit. ($1 = 83.7075 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)