15th Nov 2013 09:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - India-focused miner Vedanta Resources PLC. (VED.L) Friday reported a plunge in pretax profit for the first half of the year, amid a 17% decline in revenue partly due to weak metal and oil prices.
Profit before taxation plunged to $261.1 million from $1.068 billion in the previous year. The prior year results have been restated.
Still, Vedanta announced an interim dividend of 22 cents per ordinary share in respect of the six months ended September 30, up 5% from last year.
Loss attributable to equity holders of the parent was $217 million, compared to profit of $173.6 million in the previous year. Loss per ordinary share was 76.7 cents in comparison with earnings of 62.6 cents per share in the prior year.
Underlying profit was $80 million, while it totaled $267 million last year.
Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization or EBITDA fell 14% to $2.2 billion, reflecting weaker commodity prices, a higher percentage share of profit petroleum paid to the Government of India in the oil & gas business, absence of iron ore mining in Karnataka and Goa and lower volume in Konkola Copper Mines or KCM.
Revenue declined 17% to $6.164 billion from last year's $7.452 billion. Volume increases at Cairn India, Zinc India and Vedanta Aluminium and BALCO had a positive impact on revenue.
However, this was more than offset by lower commodity prices, temporary closure of the Tuticorin copper smelter for a quarter, reduction in production at KCM and the impact of the continued mining ban on the iron ore business.
Oil & Gas revenues fell 10% and copper revenues dropped 32%, while iron ore saw a 60% decline. Revenue from zinc rose 3% to $1.424 billion.
The firm reported record oil & gas production as well as increased output of refined zinc, lead and silver at Zinc India.
During the period, average prices fell 9% for copper, 7% for aluminum and 3% for zinc, while average brent prices were down 2%.
Vedanta said it expects to restart mining in Karnataka soon and that it is committed to delivering an operational turnaround of the Copper Zambia business. The miner remains engaged with various stakeholders including the Government of Zambia to improve productivity, volumes and profitability.
VED.L is up 1.07% in early morning trade at 1,035 pence.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
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