Summit Power has sought more time to disclose its earnings for FY23 on the ground that it awaits adjustment of the electricity price by the government to overcome loss of profit rendered by currency devaluation.
The plea has already been granted by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, extending the deadline from 28 October to 31 December.
The private power producer said it would publish financial data for FY23 and the first quarter of FY24 together on 31 December.
An Analyst, who is very familiar with the power business and knows about the company, said Summit Power was buying time maybe because their financial performance for FY23 would look bad and that would create jitter in the stock market.
Company spokesperson Mohsena Hassan, however, said, "Our auditor and our consultant say if we publish the results now that will be misleading."
Summit Power will be able to pay higher dividends to shareholders if it publishes the data later, he added.
In a stock exchange filing on Sunday, Summit Power, which supplies electricity to Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), said they had applied for compensation from the BPDB and that a response to the request was still pending.
The company said the lone vendor, Summit Oil & Shipping Co. had been dealing with an acute fund shortage for settling LC (letters of credit) obligations due to a steep devaluation of the taka against the dollar and delayed settlement of monthly bills by the BPDB. Hence, the supply of imported Heavy Furnace Oil (HFO) to power plants of Summit Power Limited (SPL) and its subsidiaries has been facing hurdles.
"This issue relating to foreign exchange cost was brought to the notice of BPDB and relevant ministry," the company said, adding that it had received assurance from the authorities concerned of compensation for the exchange rate fluctuations.
Summit said its financial data would give a grim picture if earnings were calculated at the current selling price of electricity.
It owns and operates 15 power plants across Bangladesh with a total installed capacity of 975.96MW.
Bangladesh is largely dependent on the private sector for electricity, which supplies more than 50 per cent of the total power generated.
Of the nine private electricity producers listed in the stock market, Doreen Power has already disclosed its earnings data. Doreen reported the lowest profit in seven years and it blamed the weakening of the taka.
For the nine months through March of FY23, Summit Power has shown a profit of Tk2.1 billion, unaudited, which is 39 per cent lower than the same period of the previous year.
It reported Tk5.6 billion in profit for FY21 and Tk4.1 billion for FY22 and disbursed 35 per cent and 20 per cent cash dividends for the years respectively.
The stock has been confined to the floor, at Tk34, since October last year.
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