India's Bharat Heavy Electricals swings to profit on industry unit boost
BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) reported a quarterly profit on Friday, compared with a loss last year, as a strong performance in its industrial segment helped outweigh weakness in its power division.
The state-owned company said its standalone net profit rose to 102.9 million rupees ($1.27 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, from a net loss of 674.9 million rupees a year ago. Analysts, on average, had expected a net loss of 84.33 million rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Profit before tax at BHEL's industrial segment nearly doubled to 514.3 million rupees, compared with a year ago.
BHEL — which caters to captive power plants, rail transportation, and defence products, among others — has been among the top beneficiaries of the country's surging power demand, which reportedly grew 11.65% to 786.5 billion units during April to September.
The company's results also come after Coal India, the country's leading power generator, on Monday reported that its quarterly profit more than doubled due to high domestic demand.
BHEL's input costs remained nearly flat at 12.79 billion rupees, while total revenue from operations rose 1.8%.
($1 = 80.7500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)
