Vedanta Q3 resutls: PAT rises 59%; company plans to reduce debt by Rs 5,000 crore in Q4

Mumbai: Vedanta Friday reported a 59% rise in consolidated net profit for the December quarter on account of increased commodity prices and better sales volumes in the resources conglomerate’s zinc and iron ore businesses.

Profit surged to Rs 4,224 crore against a net profit of Rs 2,665 crore during the same period last year. In the second quarter of FY21, profit was Rs 1,657 crore.

“We are ramping up across the zinc and iron & steel verticals along with successful project delivery in the oil & gas vertical,” said Sunil Duggal, chief executive officer, Vedanta. “The aluminium business has had yet another exemplary quarter as it continued the momentum of cost rationalization.”

Vedanta’s cash and cash equivalents stand at Rs 27,055 crore. Net debt was at Rs 35,357 crore, higher by Rs 14,084 crores as compared to March 2020, on account of dividend payment and inter-company loan to Vedanta Resources, offset by positive cash flow.

“Net debt to ebitda continues to be strong at 1 -1.5 range; we do expect it to come back to around 1 by March of FY 21. In Q4, we believe we will be able to reduce debt by around Rs 5,000 crore based on our strong earnings and other cost profile,” said GR Arun Kumar, chief financial officer, Vedanta.

“Capex for the year was $600 million, for 9 months we have spent $350 million. We plan to come much lower on the capex guided - maybe around $500 million. Maybe, in FY 22, we do have a lot of exciting brownfield growth, and will guide for FY22 later,” added Kumar.

During the quarter under review, Vedanta's consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 18% to Rs 7,695 crore.

Revenue in Q3 was at Rs 22,498 crore, higher by 8% q-o-q and by 6% y-oy-, primarily due to higher commodity prices, higher sales at aluminium, iron ore and steel business.

“We have capitalized many opportunities throughout the pandemic…we are currently doing some debottlenecking exercises inside the company like digitization, asset optimization and more,” said Duggal.

On a segmental basis, revenue from Vedanta’s iron ore segment rose 54% to Rs 1,284 crore. Other businesses, such as copper, reported revenue of Rs 2,664 crore, up 45%. Vedanta’s zinc and lead business rose 21% to Rs 4,745 crore and silver business grew by 65% to Rs 1,145 crore.