Vedanta core profit $4.89 bn in FY13; Cairn contributes 49%

Revenues rose 7% to $14.99 billion in the last fiscal versus $14.01 billion in FY12

Vedanta Resources today reported 21 per cent growth in its core profits (EBITDA) at $4.89 billion for the year ended March, 2013, 49 per cent of which was contributed by Cairn India alone.

The natural resources giant had reported $4.026 billion core profit or EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) in 2011-12.

Vedanta had acquired oil major Cairn India in December, 2011 and last fiscal was the first year, in which Cairn's full earnings and profits got reflected in Vedanta's financials.

Cairn's EBITDA stood at $2.44 billion during the last fiscal and it reported 18.8 per cent increase in its average daily oil production at 2,05,323 barrels.

"In 2012, Cairn India contributed 49 per cent of the Group’s EBITDA. This diversification has helped the group improve the profitability despite adverse commodity prices in copper, aluminium, zinc, lead and silver," Vedanta, whose most of the operations are in India, said in a statement.

Moreover, its net profit attributable to shareholders rose to $157.4 million from $59.8 million, a jump of 163 per cent due to changes in profit mix and profits earned for its stake in Cairn India.

Besides, its revenues rose by 7 per cent to $14.99 billion in the last fiscal vis-a-vis $14.01 billion of FY12.

However, the continuation of mining ban in Goa and Karnataka in the last fiscal impacted Vedanta's iron ore business (run through subsidiary Sesa Goa) significantly during the year. According to the company, it contributed a negative variance of $495.2 million to operating profits.

Moreover, Vedanta's operating profit for the year was also impacted negatively by $518.9 million due to lower prices of aluminium, zinc and copper, the company said.

"Despite industry-wide inflationary pressures, we have reduced or maintained unit costs across majority of our operations," Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal said on company's performance.

Talking about the proposed merger of Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries, he said, in a conference call, that it could take another 2-3 month's time as approval from the Madras High Court is still awaited. Bombay High Court's Goa bench had already approved the merger, announced in February, 2011.

"It (the merger) is a very democratic process. We have no doubt that this is going to happen... It is a win-win for everybody but the timeline can take another 2-3 months," Agrawal said.

During the last fiscal, Vedanta managed to reduce its net debt by $1.5 billion in the last fiscal to $8.615 billion. Its gross debt stood at $16.592 billion.