Vedanta Resources on Tuesday reported a decline of 4.72% in consolidated gross profit at $848.40 million for the quarter ended December, largely due to lower realisations from its aluminium business and Zambian copper operations.
The India-focused miner said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) came in at $848.4 million for the third quarter, including $131 million from its majority stake in Cairn India, acquired last year. The company had reported its Ebitda at $898.4 million during the corresponding quarter of 2010-11.
The gross revenues of the company, during the quarter under review, were at about $3.399 billion, marking a rise of about 10.81% against $3.068 billion of the Q3 of 2010-11.
However, lower London Metal Exchange (LME) prices and ?mark-to-market (MTM) losses on foreign currency borrowings for working capital on account of the depreciation of the Indian rupee? pulled down the profit of its aluminium business, the company said.
The gross profit from the aluminium business of the company were down by about 95% during the quarter to $3.6 million vis-a-vis $76.3 million of Q3 of FY11.
Similarly, the Zambian copper operations also reported a 53% drop in gross profits to $67.7 million, largely due to ?lower LME prices and a provision for higher power cost?, it added. Besides this, company?s other business segments like zinc, lead and silver and iron ore also reported drop in gross profits, thereby pulling down its Ebitda during the Q3 of the current fiscal.
For the nine-month period ended December, the company?s gross profits rose by about 14% to $2.559 billion, while its turnover increased by 30% to $9.952 billion.
Besides Cairn India, India-based Hindustan Zinc, Sterlite, Balco, Sesa Goa are some of the subsidiaries of the Vedanta Group. The group also has operations in Zambia, Namibia South Africa, Liberia, Ireland, Australia and Sri Lanka and is among the FTSE-100 companies.