Indigo’s Q3FY18 net profit rises by 56% yoy; surpasses' estimates

Interglobe Aviation (Indigo) surpassed analysts estimate in both topline (revenue) and bottomline (profit) performance for the third quarter ended December 31, 2017 (Q3FY18).

Indigo posted net profit of Rs 762.03 crore in Q3FY18, witnessing a whopping 56.41% rise as compared to net profit of Rs 487.20 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Q3FY18 net profit also increased by  38.16% from Rs 551.55 crore in the preceding quarter (Q2FY18).

Meantime, revenue from operations came in at Rs 6,177.88 crore in Q3, registering growth of 23.89% from Rs 4,986.49 crore in Q3FY17 and up by 16.76% as against Rs 5,290.98 crore of Q2FY18.

A Bloomberg poll of experts project Indigo’s revenue and net profit during Q3FY18, to be around Rs 660 crore and Rs 6,010 crore respectively.

Indigo said, “Profitability for the quarter was favourably impacted due to better revenue management as well as credits received from our manufacturers.”

While EBITDA (operating profit) stood at Rs 2,001.89 crore during Q3FY19, along with margin of 32.4%. During Q3FY17, Indigo’s EBITDA was at Rs 1,460.56 crore with margin of 29.3%.

This Q3, Indigo’s Available Seat Kilometer (ASK) was at 16.3 billion - up by 13% from 14.4 billion a year ago same period. While it’s Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK) was at 14.4 billion - which grew by 14.6% versus 12.6 billion similar period last year.

Indigo’s load increased by 1.2 points to 88.5% in Q3FY18 versus 87.3% of Q3FY17.

Aditya Ghosh, President and Whole-Time Director at Indigo said, “Last quarter was also special to us because we carried our 200 millionth customer and now operate more than thousand flights a day. I am also happy to state that Indigo has been ranked as one of the top 5 mega airlines globally in terms of on-time performance.”

Ghosh added, “These milestones reaffirm Indigo’s commitment of providing our fliers with an on-time, hassle free experience at low fares, always.”

For fourth quarter of FY18, Indigo estimates it’s year-over-year capacity increase in ASKs to be at 24%.

Ghosh also announced that, “we delivered on our promise of starting our regional operations with our ATR aircraft which will enable us to provide connectivity to many more cities in India.”

As on December 2017, Indigo had a total cash of Rs 13,887.35 crore  - comprising of Rs 8,097.82 crore in cash and Rs 5,789.54 crore in restricted cash.

Total debt of Indigo stands at Rs 2,432.63 crore in Q3FY18.

The entire debt is aircraft related, and the company does not have any working capital debt.

On Tuesday, share price of Indigo closed at Rs 1,237.90 per piece on BSE, higher by Rs 44.15 or 3.70%