Summit Power reports 25% increase in profit

Local power producer Summit Power has reported a 25 percent increase in net profit in the first three quarters of the current financial year.

During the nine months till the end of March, however, the company reported a 26 percent fall in revenue earnings compared to the same period of the previous financial year, due to a lower demand by the government, said an official of the company.   

Summit Power approved its third quarterly unaudited financial report during an online meeting on Thursday.

The company has not been directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic yet and all of its power plants are currently operational, said company secretary Swapon Kumar Pal.

As the company's income against the power plants' capacity utilisation is being taken care of by the government, Summit does not fear any major disruptions in revenue, Pal added.

From the July to March period of the 2019-20 financial year, net profit of the company was Tk676.65 crore and earnings per share were Tk4.08. During this nine-month period, revenues stood at Tk1,779 crore.

The official said that during this period, cost of sale decreased by 41 percent, and the finance costs decreased by 17 percent. 

Summit Power was listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 2005.

The closing price of the company's share at the country's prime bourse was Tk35.80 on March 25. The highest price of its share in a year was Tk45.

The sponsors and directors hold the company's 63.18 percent share; institutional investors have 21.50 percent; foreign investors 3.65 percent; and the general investors hold 11.67 percent of the shares.

The company has arranged protective gear – personal protective equipment suits, facemasks and hand sanitiser – for all the employees to protect them from coronavirus.

The employees are working in shifts at a safe distance from each other, and anyone with symptoms is given paid leave and health insurance.

"Therefore, we feel that we are fully prepared to generate power as per the demand," said an official of the company.

Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan said the company will continue to pay full salary, wages and benefits to all its employees.

After selling electricity to the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) for 15 years, three power plants of Summit Power Limited are likely to get an extension for five additional years.  

All processes are almost complete except for an approval from the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase.

The BREB is expected to buy electricity from these plants during the next five years under the "no electricity no payment" method. 

The three private power plants are Ashulia Power Plant Unit-I, Chandana Power Plant Unit-I and Madhabdi Power Plant Unit-I. These gas-based power plants have a total capacity of 33 megawatts – each with a capacity to generate 11 megawatts of power.