Up for sale, BPCL nearly doubles Q1 standalone net profit
Mumbai, Aug 13 (IANS) Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), the highlight among the host of state-run companies put on the block by the government, has reported a 93 per cent increase in its standalone net profit for the April-June quarter at Rs 2,076.17 crore.
During the corresponding period of last fiscal, the company had reported a standalone net profit of Rs 1,075.12 crore.
The rise in profits was largely backed by a 43.22 per cent fall in its total expenditure during the period under review to Rs 48,284.06 crore.
Revenue from operations of the company, however, declined 41 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 50,616.92 crore.
In a regulatory filing, the company said that the market sales of the company for the quarter ended June were lower at 7.53 MMT when compared to 11.11 MMT achieved a year ago.
“The Average Gross Refining Margin (GRM) of the corporation during the quarter ended 30th June 2020 is $0.39 per barrel (April-June 2019: $2.81 per BBL),” it said.
It said that the outbreak of Covid-19 globally and resultant lockdown in many countries, including India, had an impact on the business of the corporation.
“Consequently, lower demand for crude oil and petroleum products has impacted the prices and therefore refining margins globally. Since petroleum products are covered under essential services, the refining and marketing operations of the corporation were continued during the lockdown period,” BPCL said.
During this quarter, there was lower refinery throughput and revenue from operations which was mainly due to lower demand of petroleum products, the company said in its filing.
However, with the gradual reopening of the economy, BPCL expects the refinery throughput and revenue from operations will improve and will be at normal levels, post Covid-19 impact and removal of complete lockdown restrictions.
“Management has assessed the potential impact of Covid-19 based on the current circumstances and expects that there will be no significant impact on the continuity of operations of the corporation, on useful life of the assets, on financial position etc. on a long term basis,” it said.
As announced last year, the company is up for strategic sale, wherein the government plans to sell 52.98 per cent in the oil major along with the transfer of management control.
The response from prospective buyers, however, has not been as expected, largely due to the pandemic and the deadline for the submission of Expressions of Interest (EoI) has been deferred for the third time till September 30.
The government’s decision of strategic sale of the profit-making PSU, has, however drawn criticism from several quarters.
–IANS
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