Vedanta Resources Q1 operating profit falls 38% to $644.6 mn

Vedanta Resources today reported 38 per cent decline in operating profit to USD 644.6 million (about Rs 4,135 crore) for the quarter ended June 2015 as the mining conglomerate faced a volatile commodity market that impacted metal prices.
The Anil Agarwal-led group had clocked a EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of USD 1.04 billion in the first quarter of last fiscal.
The company said in a statement that its revenue fell 4 per cent to USD 2.95 billion in April-June quarter of the current fiscal, from USD 3.06 billion in the same quarter of 2014-15.
Vedanta Resources CEO Tom Albanese said: "In Q1 we saw continued volatility in commodity prices, but Zinc has held up quite well in view of its strong fundamentals and is now largest contributor to our EBITDA."

Vedanta will continue to focus on improving efficiency, costs and enhancing production, he added.
"We have broken ground at the Gamsberg Zinc project in South Africa, improved production at Konkola mines in Zambia and remain on track to re-start iron ore production at Goa following the monsoons," Albanese said.

Vedanta Resources' Oil & Gas segment reported a 61 per cent drop in EBITDA at USD 215.4 million in Q1 2015-16 from USD 549.9 million in Q1 2014-15. Revenue fell by 45 per cent to USD 413 million from USD 748 million in the June quarter.
Zinc India business' operating profit grew 11 per cent at USD 255.4 million in June quarter this fiscal from USD 230.2 million in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 15 per cent to USD 558.2 million from USD 485.9 million in the same period.

Its Zinc International business, however posted a 3 per cent decline in EBITDA at USD 37.3 million from USD 38.4 million, while revenue was also down by 4 per cent to USD 139.3 million from USD 144.4 million in the reported quarter.
Vedanta Resources said the iron ore business posted a fall of 12 per cent in operating profit at USD 3.4 million in Q1 2015-16 from USD 3.9 million in Q1 2014-15. Revenue also fell by 12 per cent to USD 75.6 million compared to USD 85.6 million during the same period.
Copper India and Australia segment's operating profit jumped a whopping 148 per cent to USD 82.4 million April-June of this fiscal from USD 33.2 million in the same quarter in 2014-15. Revenue rose 10 per cent to USD 877.4 million from USD 797.6 million during the reported quarter.

While is the case of Copper Zambia, the EBITDA nosedived 78 per cent to USD 6 million from USD 28 million, whereas, revenue rose marginally to USD 289.2 million from USD 287.5 million in the quarter under review.
Aluminium segment's EBITDA plummeted 102 per cent to USD 1.9 million in Q1 2015-16 from USD 88.4 million in Q1 2014-15. Revenue was down 2 per cent to USD 430.4 million from USD 438.5 million in the same period.
Power arm's EBITDA fell 35 per cent to USD 43.6 million from USD 66.7 million. However, revenue was up 17 per cent to USD 190.2 million from USD 162.5 million.