Senin, 25 Juni 2012

Shares in Essar Energy plunge after £771m tax demand

Shares in Essar Energy plunge after £771m tax demand

By Roger Baird

PUBLISHED: 16:05 EST, 25 June 2012 | UPDATED: 16:05 EST, 25 June 2012

Shares in Essar Energy tumbled after a regional court said the Indian-focused energy firm should pay £771m of unpaid taxes in a lump sum.

The London-listed firm had hoped to pay the bill, which relates to sales from its recently upgraded Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, over a number of years.

Essar said it would appeal the decision taken by the High Court of Gujarat with the Supreme Court of India.

Essar Energy share price

Essar chief executive Naresh Nayyar said it is in advanced talks with lenders to raise £642m to pay the tax and ‘expects to get approval in the next few weeks.’

However, shares closed 9.8p, almost 8 per cent down, at 116p. Essar raised £1.2bn when it joined the London market in 2010 at 420p a share.

Essar, which recently changed its accounting period, said provisions for the tax bill pushed the firm to a pre-tax loss of £706m for the 15 months to the end of March, compared to a profit of £234.7m in the year to December 2010.

Essar, which holds most of its assets in India, bought the Stanlow refinery in Cheshire from Shell for £224.7m last year. It said it will complete ten months of upgrades to the site in September to improve profit by between £96.3m-£144.5m over the next two to three years.

The oil gas and power generation firm generates 30 per cent of its annual sales outside the sub-continent, with the remainder coming inside India. However, the company holds 90 per cent of its assets in India.

Nayyar added the tax bill issue would not put the firm off further investment in India, where he said demand for power is growing at a rate of 7 per cent a year.

Diposting oleh di

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Langganan: Posting Komentar (Atom)