Nishat Chunian Power Limited (PSX: NCPL) – a Nishat Group IPP - announced its financial performance for 9MFY17 last week where earnings dipped by 6.4 percent year-on-year. However, the recent quarter (3QFY17) depicts an improvement in earnings by 18.5 percent year-on-year. The improvement in earnings in the third quarter came from improved revenues of the IPP by 50 percent, year-on-year.

Nishat Chunian Power Limited has seen its earnings contract in FY16 and so far in FY17. However, the IPP’s had a stable growth of over six percent year-on-year in its earnings back in FY15, where operational factors remained the key earning boosters for NCPL. The cost of sales also remained weaker in FY15, declining by 23 percent year-on-year due to lower operation and maintenance cost.

Though finance cost in 9MFY17 and 3QFY17 have come down, circular dent has remained a key concern for the IPP. According to the Director’s Report for 1HFY17, Central Power Purchasing Agency (Guarantee) Limited (CPPA-G) has consistently been unable to meet its obligations to make timely payments to the company, and as on December 31, 2016, total receivables from CPPA-G were Rs7.64 billion out of which Rs5.54 billion were overdue.