Hindustan Zinc Q3 net down marginally at Rs 1,274 cr

Vedanta group company Hindustan Zinc today reported a marginal decline of 1.24% in its net profit to Rs 1,273.60 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1,289.58 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2010-11.

Net sales of the company was worth Rs 2,746.77 crore, up 5.89% vis-a-vis Rs 2,601.47 crore of October-December quarter of 2010-11, it said in a regulatory filing.

In a statement later, the company said, "The positive impact of increased volumes and rupee depreciation was partially offset by the decline in London Metal Exchange (LME) prices."

During the quarter, average prices of zinc and lead at the LME reported a fall of about 18 and 17%, respectively, on quarter-on-quarter basis, it added.

The world's largest integrated producer of zinc was able to report profit in the quarter largely due to an increase in "other income" category, which was Rs 381.87 crore, the filing showed, but did not specified it. In October-December quarter, the company had reported 207.10 crore as other income.

According to the filing, company's revenues from zinc and lead businesses were flat at Rs 2,471.20 crore in the Q3 of current fiscal vis-a-vis Rs 2,473.25 crore of the same quarter of 2010-11.

However, its revenues from silver business went up by about 120% to Rs 255.27 crore during the quarter.

Besides this, the company's expenditure on raw materials also went up by over 151% to Rs 115.60 crore during the October-December period of 2011 as compared to Rs 46.05 crore in Q3 of 2010-11.

"We remain committed to enhancing stakeholders' wealth driven by our global leadership position, large reserves and resources base, strong liquidity position and cash flow generation, and low cost operations," company's Chairman Agnivesh Agarwal said in the statement.

The Rajasthan-based company's refined zinc production was up 7% at 1,90,950 tonnes during the quarter, while its refined lead production was 28,804 tonnes, posting a record growth of 102%.

The silver production of Hindustan Zinc was also up 37% at 57,600 kg in October-December, 2011 as the company commissioned a new refinery of 350 tonnes per annum capacity at Uttarakhand's Pantnagar during the quarter.

As on 31 December 2011, the Vedanta group firm was sitting on a cash and cash equivalents of Rs 16,255 crore.

Shares of the company closed today at Rs 126.55 apiece on the BSE, up 0.24% from the previous close.