Vedanta Q1 profit drops 11.8 pc to Rs 1,351 cr

Mining baron Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd Friday posted an 11.8 per cent decline in consolidated profit at Rs 1,351 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, mainly on the back of decline in commodity prices.

The company had posted a consolidated profit "attributable to owners of Vedanta Ltd" of Rs 1,533 crore in the year-ago period, Vedanta said in a BSE filing.

Consolidated income dropped to Rs 21,754 crore in April-June 2019, from Rs 22,624 crore in the year-ago period.

Vedanta's Chief Executive Officer Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, at the post-earnings conference call, said the primary reason for the drop in profit was decline in commodity prices.

In a statement, the company said its "Attributable PAT (was) at Rs 1,351 crore, down 12 per cent Y-o-Y.

"We continue to strengthen our position as one of the largest diversified natural resource businesses in the world with our strategy focused on value-added growth. Our businesses stayed resilient in a quarter with low commodity prices and uncertain market environment and we continued to ramp up across the key verticals, zinc & oil & gas," Venkatakrishnan said.

"Silver is outperforming as we climb up the ranks among the top global silver producers. Aluminium business is steadily moving towards its target cost," he said.

"We are also pleased with the superior returns that have been achieved with the unwinding of the structured investment transaction at CIHL (Cairn India Holdings Ltd) for the benefit of all shareholders of Vedanta," he added.

"Structured investment at CIHL unwound with net cumulative gain of... USD 100 million in...8 months," the statement said.

The company's gross debt stood at Rs 59,517 crore. The company said it has a strong financial position with total cash and liquid investments of Rs 30,774 crore.

At "Zinc India the refined metal production (was) at 219kt (thousand tonnes), up three per cent Y-o-Y", it added.