23rd Jul 2018 14:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - Vedanta Resources PLC unit Hindustan Zinc Ltd on Monday said that higher zinc prices, depreciation of the Indian rupee and higher lead and silver volumes led to a year-on-year jump in adjusted earnings and revenue for the first three months of 2019 financial year.
For the three months to June-end, the unit's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose 16% year-on-year to INR27.85 billion, or around GBP308.19 million, from INR24.04 billion recorded in the comparative year ago quarter. First quarter Ebitda - the company's preferred profit measure - however fell 24% on quarter-on-quarter basis.
Sales for the period totalled INR52.58 billion, up from INR45.24 billion recorded a year ago, but down 15% from INR61.74 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018 financial year.
Silver production for the three months totalled 138 metric tons, up 20% year-on-year. Refined lead production stood at 42 kilo tons, up 20%. Integrated zinc production was down 11% year-on-year at 172 metric tons.
Net profit for the quarter was INR19.18 billion, up 2% year-on-year and down 23% sequentially. Net profit was impacted by lower investment income on account of mark-to-market loss on debt investments due to spike in interest rates.
"We are steadily increasing production from underground mines to fill the gap caused by closure of open-cast operation. As the year progresses, we will deliver record performance. As the journey towards 1.2 million MT output accelerates, we have started planning for our next phase of expansion," Hindustan Zinc Chairman Agnivesh Agarwal said.
Hindustan Zinc said it expects mined metal and refined zinc-lead production in 2019 financial year to increase progressively due to continued ramp-up of underground mines and be slightly higher than that of last year despite closure of open-cast operations. Silver production is expected to be in the range of 650 to 700 metric tons and cost of production before royalty is projected to be in the range of USD950 to USD975 per metric ton in the financial year.
Shares in UK-listed parent Vedanta were trading 0.5% higher at 777.00 pence each on Monday afternoon. Vedanta owns 64.9% of Hindustan Zinc, with most of the remainder owned by the government of India.
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