Essar Shipping net jumps on ports, oilfields biz

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Jan 2010

Sea logistics firm Essar Shipping Ports & Logistics Ltd's Oct-Dec net profit jumped 69 percent helped by strong growth in ports and oilfields businesses. Profits jumped to 220 million rupees on sales of 8,120 million rupees in Oct-Dec quarter against a net profit of 130 million rupees on sales of 5,650 million rupees, a year ago.
"Once we complete the planned investments of around $1.8 billion over next 2-3 years, almost 50 percent of our business will come from ports segment," V Ashok, director, Essar Shipping, told a news conference on Friday.
The shipping and oilfields business would then contribute half the total business, Ashok said.
The company is looking to expand its oilfields business to Brazil, Vietnam and Myanmar.
"Once the planned jack-up rigs are delivered in 2011, we will look at deployment on a long-term contractual basis," said another director, A.R. Ramakrishnan.
Essar Shipping shares ended up 2.82 percent at 71.05 rupees in a Mumbai market that closed up 0.31 percent.

Source: Reuters