Net sales during the quarter increased by 12% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1336.63 crore in Q2 FY21. Total expense jumped by 16.6% YoY to Rs 1,358.42 crore in Q2 FY21 over Q2 FY20.

Profit before tax in Q2 September 2020 stood at Rs 17.52 crore, down by 82.6% from Rs 100.85 crore in Q2 September 2019. Current tax outgo declined by 78.4% YoY to Rs 2.95 crore in Q2 FY21.

The company reported order inflow of 1.4 GW amounting to Rs 5,696 crore from 1st April 2020 until 30th September 2020. i.e. 124% of restated FY20 order booking (after exclusion of non-contracted projects). The company has strong order backlog with unexecuted order value exceeding Rs 9,000 crore.

Commenting on the results, Bikesh Ogra, director and global CEO, Sterling and Wilson Solar, said: "Execution has picked up significantly across all geographies and we have also commenced construction at the project sites which we had recently won. Our current operational efficiency is now more than 90% and are poised to reach pre-COVID levels in Q4 of FY21, subject to no lockdowns in geographies where projects are under execution.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, we are very pleased to have booked a healthy order inflow till date, which is in excess to what we had recorded (as restated) in FY20.

Post entering the major solar markets of Australia and Americas a few years ago, we have today established ourselves as one of the leading solar EPC players, executing projects for some of the leading global Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Our strategy to expand our operations in these markets continues to bear fruits, as in Q2FY21 we have booked additional order inflows for adding capacity of 415 MWp worth Rs 2,063 crores.

The European market, after a hiatus of 4-5 years, is now showing promising signs for solar power sector and is expected to witness a surge in annual solar PV capacities of about 7 GW for the coming years. We have been reinforcing our management teams over the last few months and have recently set up a new office in Spain to capitalize this opportunity.

Leveraging our EPC expertise, we have a current O&M portfolio of 8 GW (16% higher as compared to Sep 2019) and are on track to add further capacities in domestic as well as international markets both for in-house EPC and thirdparty clients as well."

Sterling and Wilson Solar, a Shapoorji Pallonji group company, is a global pure-play, end-to-end solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) solutions provider. The company provides EPC services primarily for utility scale solar power projects with a focus on project design and engineering and manages all aspects of project execution from conceptualizing to commissioning. It also provides operations and maintenance (O&M) services, including for projects constructed by third parties.