India’s Suzlon Sept qtr standalone profit slumps
October 31st, 2008 | by admin |MUMBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) – India’s Suzlon Energy Ltd(SUZL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s No. 5 wind turbine maker, said itsstandalone quarterly net profit tumbled 95.2 percent on foreignexchange losses and provisioning for faulty blades.
Suzlon said net profit in the September quarter fell to169.8 million rupees ($3.4 million) from 3.56 billion rupeesreported a year ago.
Total income rose to 22.34 billion rupees from 16.95billion.
Suzlon said currency losses on outstanding foreign loansand hedging were 2.3 billion rupees in the quarter. It also setaside 477.7 million rupees for restoration of faulty windturbines and blade failures in the United States.
It said oustanding order book stood at 140.52 billionrupees, compared with 164.9 billion rupees at the end of July.
Producers of renewable energy equipment such as Suzlon wereriding a boom as high oil prices and climate change concernsprompted countries to crackdown on greenhouse emissions, butthe credit crisis is forcing developers to re-think projects.
Suzlon shares have been hammered 40.5 percent over the lastweek after a large blade attached to a wind turbine supplied byit cracked and fell off on a corn field in the United States.
A unit of Edison International (EIX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) had cancelled ordersfor 150 turbines in June following cracks in blades.
In a separate statement, the company said it had droppedplans to invest in a tower manufacturing facility reducing itscapital expenditure plan to 6.69 billion rupees. It did notelaborate.
On Monday, the company had dropped plans for a $360 millionrights offer citing falling markets.
Suzlon shares fell 30 percent in the September quarter,compared with a 4.5 percent drop in the benchmark index.BSESN. ($1=49.5 rupees) (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by RanjitGangadharan)