Sterling and Wilson Solar Net Profit up 36% in Q2 2019, Stock Slumps

Sterling and Wilson Solar has reported a 36 percent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 79.40 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal.

Sterling and Wilson Solar on November 15, 2019, issued its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2019, reporting a 36 percent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 79.40 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group firm had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 58.36 crore in the September quarter of the previous fiscal, it said in a BSE filing.

The total income of the company almost halved to stand at Rs 1,265.64 crore in the quarter under review, compared to Rs 2,540.29 crore earlier. However, the figure is not comparable really due to the firm moving to a new accounting standard Ind As 116, making comparisons irrelevant.

“We witnessed a strong increase in gross margin percentage due to efficient execution and procurement, both in India as well as international markets, in spite of a reduction in revenue as compared to the corresponding half year in FY 19… Currently, the Company has an order book of about Rs 12480 crore (previous comparable period approx. Rs 4500 crore),” said Bikesh Ogra, director and Global CEO, Sterling and Wilson Solar.

“The company recently bagged orders in strategic markets like Australia and the US, that have conducive solar power policies coupled with high solar resources. The company will continue to make strong progress on its focused growth areas of Renewable Generation which includes rooftop solar and floating solar, along with strengthening its O&M portfolio, which is growing exponentially,” he added.

The company has over 8.88 GW of solar EPC projects as part of its portfolio in different stages of implementation (commissioned and under-construction). It won orders amounting to Rs 828 crore in the six months ended September 30, 2019, and orders amounting to Rs 6,282 crore in October and November 2019.

In May, the firm was ranked as the world’s largest Solar EPC service provider by IHSMarkit in its recently announced Solar EPC and O&M Provider Tracker Q1 2019 report.

More recently, initial public offering (IPO)-bound Sterling and Wilson Solar Ltd had revealed that it had raised Rs 1,406 crore from 27 anchor investors by allotting 1,80,28,846 equity shares at the upper band price of Rs 780 ahead of its initial issue that opened on August 6 this year. However, the shares made a disappointing debut on the bourses on August 20, 2019, falling more than 10 percent over its issue price of Rs 780.

For investors in the firm, the bad news did not stop there, as seen by the shares being locked at the lower end of the circuit filter, of 20 percent, after the results came out. This is because of the surprising news of the directors applying for reschedulement of their loans payable to the firm. Blaming it on the poor response to the IPO, and subsequent tightening of liquidity in the market. While it should have no material impact on the firms operations, the failure to communicate issues has certainly caused a loss of confidence in the firm’s corporate governance, an aspect widely seen as a strength up till now. One hopes that the firm will be able to overcome the tremendous dissapointment of its stock performance, with some real good news on the revenue front.