Riding on revenue surge as well as higher production volumes, metal and mining conglomerate Vedanta on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,988 crore for the quarter ended March 2017. The company had incurred a net loss of Rs 21,104 crore (profit/loss for the period/year after share in profit/loss of jointly controlled entities and associates) during the corresponding quarter of 2015-16, it said in a filing to the BSE.
Last year’s Q4 loss was mainly due to a non-cash impairment charge of Rs 12,304 crore largely relating to Cairn India.
Vedanta has recently completed the buyout of Cairn India. The consolidated total revenue of the natural resources giant surged by 35.43 per cent to Rs 24,612.15 crore during the quarter under review.
It had recorded revenues to the tune of Rs 18,172.61 crore for corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.
Its total expenses surged to Rs 19,448.47 crore in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal as against Rs 16,992.70 crore in the corresponding period a year-ago.
The company said its financial position remained strong with cash and liquid investments of Rs 63,471 crore.
As on March 31, 2017 its gross debt was at Rs 71,569 crore including short term borrowing of Rs 7,908 crore borrowed by Zinc India due to mismatch between Investment maturities and dividend payment.
The company said, “Excluding Zinc India temporary borrowing, gross debt decreased by Rs 4,115 crore to Rs 63,661 crore. Net debt reduced by Rs 3,415 crore during the quarter to Rs 8,099 crore on account of positive free cash flow during the quarter.”
Navin Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta, said, “The completion of the Cairn India merger transforms Vedanta into a diversified natural resources powerhouse, anchored in India.”
He said further, “The combined entity truly reflects our strong, diversified, low-cost portfolio with industry-leading volume growth from our well-invested assets.”
Vedanta is one of the largest contributors to the exchequer in 2016-17, at Rs 40,000 crore, Agarwal said.
He added: “The record dividends during the past financial year highlight our commitment to shareholder value. We are looking forward to a very exciting 2017-18 and future years, with all our businesses operating at full capacities and cost efficiencies.”
Tom Albanese, CEO, Vedanta, said the company’s strategic focus to ramp up production across the portfolio, namely zinc, aluminium, power and iron ore businesses, has supplemented revenue growth.
“In particular, record production levels at zinc and aluminium were well-timed in an environment of strong supply side pressures on both commodities. Our cost management initiatives have helped us deliver strong returns for all our shareholders,” he added.
The company said EBITDA in Q4 was up 109 per cent y-o-y on account of increased volumes at Iron Ore & Zinc India; ramp up of volumes & cost efficiencies at the Aluminium and Power business, improved commodity prices and decline in discount to Brent in the Oil & Gas business.
This was partly offset by lower volume at Zinc International on account of Lisheen Mine closure in FY 2016 and natural decline at the Ravva and Cambay oil fields, it added.
It said that depreciation and amortisation for Q4 at Rs 1,604 crore, was marginally higher by Rs 23 crore compared to Q3 mainly on account of higher amortization of mining expenses and added on y-o-y basis, it was lower by Rs 478 crore.
It said it had a record annual production at aluminium, Power, Zinc India (Zinc and Silver) and at Copper-India besides successful ramp up from Mangala EOR with production level of 56,000 boepd in Q4.
On iron ore, it achieved 2.6 million tonnes of the additional production capacity granted in Goa. Also, it said, Gamsberg project of Zinc International was on track to commence production in mid CY 2018.
