The London-listed Essar Energy, which is majority owned by the privately-held conglomerate Essar Group, reported an 18% rise in core earnings for the first half of the year, boosted by the contribution of its recently acquired British Stanlow refinery.
The company said operational earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was $383 million for the six months ended September 30, up from $324 million a year earlier. Essar said Stanlow, the second-largest UK refinery, which it acquired from Royal Dutch Shell last year, had operational EBITDA of $132 million in the first half.
Stanlow’s strong performance helped offset weakness in its power business in India, which continues to be hit by regulatory and coal supplies issues.
It is still struggling to win the permits it requires to mine the coal needed to fuel its stations.
Operational EBITDA for the power business fell to $93.0 million, from $106.8 million a year earlier.
Revenue nearly doubled to $12.8 billion, boosted by increased refining revenues in India from higher capacity and sales from its acquisition of Stanlow. Revenue from the Stanlow refinery came in at $5 billion.
The company reported a loss of $200.8 million for the first half of the year compared with a profit of $206.2 million in the year ago period, hurt by higher interest costs and increased foreign exchange losses.
