Vedanta reports loss, dip in revenue in FY’14

Vedanta Resources today reported USD 196 million attributable loss for the 2013-14 fiscal on lower revenue and operating profit.

The London Stock Exchange-listed diversified global resources major had clocked USD 162 million attributable profit in 2012-13, it said in a statement.

The company attributed the loss to USD 417.7 million dip in EBITDA (operating profit) and one-offs such as accelerated amortisation on a large convertible bond series, among others.

Apart from lower EBITDA, better performance at partly owned subsidiaries as compared to wholly owned subsidiaries resulted in higher economic interest of minorities, leading to an attributable loss, Vedanta added.

Revenue of the NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal-led company also declined by 11.6 per cent to USD 12.945 billion compared with USD 14.640 billion a year ago.

“We achieved record oil and gas production, driven by the ramp up in the Rajasthan block, as well as record production at Zinc India and with improved operating performance at our Aluminium business,” Agarwal said.

Vednata is one of the world’s largest diversified resources company with operations in India, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Ireland, Liberia, Australia and Sri Lanka. It produces aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, silver, iron ore, power, and oil and gas.

Vedanta delivered USD 4.5 billion EBITDA against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment, volatile markets and generally low global growth rate, it added.

“EBITDA reflected weaker global commodity and oil prices, increased rate of share of profit petroleum to Government of India, although these were partly offset by lower costs in aluminium, increased volumes at Zinc India and our record oil production,” it said.

The company also experienced lower volumes at Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) and Zinc International and iron ore, where the state-wide bans on mining in Karnataka and Goa were lifted in December 2013 and April 2014 respectively with conditions.

It started mining in Karnataka in December last year and is currently working with the government and the Environment Ministry to restart operations in Goa.