30th Jul 2014 08:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Vedanta Resources PLC Wednesday said its total revenues and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation increased in its first quarter due particularly to stronger sales at its oil and gas operations and copper division.
The India-focused oil and metals company said revenues were up 7% to USD3.06 billion for the three months ended June 30 from USD2.87 billion in the same period the previous year, and its EBITDA rose 1% to USD1.04 billion during the period.
The company said sales from its oil and gas division increased 3% to USD748.0 million due to higher volumes and positive oil prices, and sales from its copper division jumped 36% to USD1.02 billion with particular improvements in both India and Australia where the company achieved significantly higher copper cathode production.
Vedanta noted on Tuesday that at its Australian copper mine, where production has been suspended since January, a rock fall occurred in June, which has delayed the restart of the mine. The company said the mine has been put on care and maintenance in July, and could be reopened in its full year 2016 if the mine is found to be technically and economically feasible.
Vedanta said its zinc revenues fell 8% to USD630.3 million due to lower production on routine maintenance and its Power division sales fell 23% to USD162.5 million due to low sales from its Indian Jharsuguda 2,400 megawatt plant.
On Tuesday, the company's subsidiary Sesa Sterlite Ltd said that it saw a large fall in its profit after tax for the first quarter, despite an increase in revenues, as Cairn India Ltd changed its method of depreciation.
Sesa Sterlite owns majority stakes in Hindustan Zinc Ltd and Cairn India Ltd, which both announced falls in post-tax profits in the quarter to June 30 last week.
Sterlite said its post tax profit fell 43% to INR13.63 billion from INR23.79 billion the previous year with an overall exceptional item cost of INR16.27 billion due to changes in Cairn India's method of depreciation from the straight-line method to the unit-of-production method during the period.
Sterlite added that its overall sales from operations increased 19% to INR17.06 billion from INR14.36 billion due to Sterlite Copper being under temporary closure during the comparative period and revenue increases at Cairn India.
Sterlite said its oil and gas operations are seeing sustained production at roughly 220,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and significant exploration and appraisal activity underway at its Rajasthan operations should provide continued growth.
Vedanta Resources merged its Indian subsidiaries Sesa Goa, Sterlite Industries, Madras Aluminium Co, Sterlite Energy and Vedanta Aluminium into one entity, Sesa Sterlite, last year.
In 2011, UK-listed Cairn Energy PLC sold a majority stake in Cairn India, the Indian part of its business, to Vedanta for USD5.5 billion and has since continued to reduce its stake in the group. Cairn Energy continues to hold roughly a 10% stake in Cairn India.
Vedanta Resources shares were down 2.6% to 1,062.00 pence, putting it amongst the top three FTSE 250 losers on Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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