India's Adani Enterprises Q1 profit jumps on strong new energy business

BENGALURU, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Indias Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) on Thursday reported a 44% rise in first-quarter profit, as performance at its new energy division outpaced a weak growth in the key coal trading division.

The companys consolidated profit rose to 6.74 billion rupees ($81.5 million) for the quarter ended June 30, from 4.69 billion rupees a year ago.

The companys mainstay coal business posted a small 5% rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at 10 billion rupees due to a fall in coal prices, while that of the Adani New Energy segment jumped seven-fold to 3.55 billion rupees.

Coal prices have more than halved from record highs hit last year and stabilized from the volatile situation in 2022, when Western sanctions on Russia pushed up global prices.

The coal segment was impacted due to the correction in coal prices and lower volumes, while the new energy business saw strong performance due to a surge in export volumes, the company said in a statement.

Revenue from operations fell 37.7% to 408.44 billion rupees, mainly dragged down by the fall in revenue in its coal segment.

Adani Group companies, including the flagship Adani Enterprises, are slowly recovering from a report by U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Researchs in January, which wiped out nearly $147 billion from the listed entities market cap.

Shares of its group companies have rebounded but are still down around $100 billion in value after the Hindenburg report alleged improper use of tax havens and concerns over its debt levels, which the conglomerate denied.

Adani Enterprises shares were up 2.2% ahead of the results, even as the benchmark Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) were down 0.7%.

($1 = 82.7280 Indian rupees)