Vedanta Resources Q1 profit before taxes falls 18% to $527 mn

Vedanta Resources today reported a 18 percent decline in profit before taxes and interest to USD 527.1 million (nearly Rs 3,439 crore) for the quarter ended June 30, on account of lower revenue.

The billionaire Anil Agarwal-led group had clocked a EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of USD 644.6 million in the first quarter of last fiscal.

Its revenue fell 21 percent to USD 2.34 billion in April-June quarter of the current fiscal, from USD 2.95 billion in the same quarter of 2015-16, the company said in a statement.

Vedanta Resources CEO Tom Albanese said: "We are focused on generating stronger free cash flow and de-levering balance sheet, in line with our strategic priorities. Another of these priorities, the simplification of the group structure, is also on track following the recent announcement of the revised and final terms for the Vedanta Ltd-Cairn India merger." The Group has made good progress on the ramp up of capacities at aluminium, power and iron ore businesses during the quarter, he said.

"These would be significant contributors to earnings as the year progresses. Zinc India was impacted by lower mined metal production as per the mine plan, and the second half is expected to be substantially higher. We are making good progress towards optimising costs at Copper Zambia," he said.

Vedanta Resources' oil & gas segment reported a 45 percent drop in EBITDA at USD 119.2 million in Q1 2016-17 from USD 215.4 million in Q1 2015-16. Revenue fell by 32 percent to USD 281.5 million during the quarter from USD 413 million in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.

Zinc India business' operating profit declined 37 percent to USD 160.3 million in June quarter from USD 255.4 million in the year-ago period. Revenue dipped 35 percent to USD 364.8 million from USD 558.2 million.

Its Zinc International business, however posted a stagnant EBITDA at USD 37.4 million, while revenue was down by 51 percent to USD 67.7 million from USD 139.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

Vedanta Resources said the iron ore business posted an operating profit at USD 54 million in Q1 2016-17 from USD 3.4 million in Q1 2015-16. Revenue also shot up by 92 percent to USD 145 million compared to USD 75.6 million during the same period.

Copper India segment's EBIDTA dropped by 20 percent to USD 65.7 million during April-June of this fiscal from USD 82.4 million in the same quarter in 2015-16. Revenue declined 21 percent to USD 695.5 million from USD 877.4 million during the reported quarter.

While is the case of Copper Zambia, the EBITDA dropped 38 percent to USD 3.7 million from USD 6 million, whereas, revenue declined to USD 194.8 million from USD 289.2 million a year-ago.