Indian power company CESC's quarterly profit falls on higher tax expenses

NTPC

15/05/2025 09:44

BENGALURU, May 15 (Reuters) - India's CESC CESC.NS, a power generation and distribution company, reported a fall in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, hurt by a jump in tax expenses amid higher power demand.

The company's consolidated net profit fell 6.8% year-on-year to 3.73 billion rupees ($43.6 million) for the three months ended March 31.

CESC's total tax expenses jumped to 810 million rupees from 40 million rupees a year ago. The company's profit before tax rose 11.2%.

Revenue from operations climbed 14.5% to 38.77 billion rupees.

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KEY CONTEXT

Power demand increased steadily during the January-March period as above-normal temperatures led to higher electricity usage.

Analysts at Elara Capital had expected a boost to CESC's fourth-quarter revenue due to increased power generation and reduced distribution losses. The company's distribution segment likely benefited from lower aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses, the brokerage added.

AT&C losses are a combination of energy losses, including due to theft and billing inefficiency, as well as commercial losses, which include payment defaults and collection inefficiency.

Peer Tata Power TTPW.NS reported a surge in fourth-quarter profit driven by strong power demand, while Torrent Power's TOPO.NS profit more than doubled on lower costs.

 PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
Estimates (next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
# of analysts
Stock to price target**
Div yield (%)
CESC
CESC.NS
16.21
8.30
5.55
11.30
Buy
9
0.80
2.74
Torrent Power
TOPO.NS
27.44
12.56
10.57
4.28
Hold
9
1.05
1.26
NTPC
NTPC.NS
14.50
9.15
8.12
9.02
Buy
17
0.82
2.18
Tata Power
TTPW.NS
NULL
12.02
11.28
14.92
Hold
21
0.93
0.51

 * Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
 ** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG Data

-- $1 = 85.5350 rupees

CESC JAN -MARCH https://tmsnrt.rs/3S1jiWi

 (Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru)

 ((Anuran.Sadhu@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8697274436;))