Billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd has reported a 36.5 percent increase in consolidated net profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2024. The company’s net profit surged to Rs 3,606 crore from Rs 2,640 crore in the same period last year, largely driven by elevated prices of zinc, lead, copper, and nickel.
Revenue and EBITDA
The consolidated revenue from operations of Vedanta grew 5.6 percent at Rs 35,239 crore in Q1FY25 against Rs 33,342 crore in Q1FY24. As attributed by the Chief Financial Officer of the group, Ajay Goel, this increase has been because of ‘robust’ business performance and supportive commodity prices.
First-quarter EBITDA surged 47 percent due to the ongoing cost-saving program, a moderation in input commodity price inflation, and favorable output commodity price movements. It returned an EBITDA margin of 34 percent for the quarter from 24 percent in the same quarter a year ago.
Segment Performance
The aluminium business was the standout performer with a 144% surge in core earnings to Rs 4,441 crore. Production at the Lanjigarh alumina refinery rose 11% quarter-on-quarter and by 36% year-on-year following new capacity addition. Outgoing Executive Director Arun Misra singled out the aluminium and zinc divisions and said they were now ranked in the top quartile of the global cost curve owing to strategic cost reduction.
It has posted 17.8 per cent rise to Rs 3,903 crore in earnings growth in its zinc, silver and lead business.
Debt and Cash Flow
Vedanta’s net debt jumped to Rs 61,324 crore as on June 30, 2024, rising by Rs 4,986 crore from March 31. Net debt to EBITDA sequentially remained stable at 1.5x but is lesser than 1.9x in Q1FY24.
Vedanta had raised Rs 8,500 crore through a Qualified Institutions Placement at Rs 440 per share in July. The company generated robust free cash flow pre-capex of Rs 4,371 crore, up 41 percent yearon-year.
Demerger Proposal
Vedanta had recently announced that its demerger scheme was approved by 75 per cent of its secured creditors. It would now look to get the required clearances from stock exchanges and file its de-merger scheme with the National Company Law Tribunal.
At 2:57 pm on August 6, shares of Vedanta were up 0.3 percent at Rs 415 apiece on the BSE. The company’s shares have surged about 57 percent in the last one year, outperforming the Nifty 50’s rise of 22 percent.
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Source: Moneycontrol
News Desk
