Vedanta to exclude base metals business from sweeping demerger
The group said it will consider the base metals business demerger at a later stage.
Indian metal-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta reported a smaller-than-expected drop in third-quarter profit on Thursday, as an uptick in production and sales outweighed lower metal prices.
Consolidated profit after tax dropped 18% to 20.13 billion rupees (nearly $242 million), ahead of analysts’ average estimate of a 23.5% fall, as per LSEG data.
Domestic sales and production for zinc rose 9.8% and 7% respectively, while that of aluminum rose 1.4% and 6%, respectively.
As a result, revenue from operations rose 4% to 349.68 rupees during the quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of an 8% fall.
Grappling with falling metal prices, the metals and mining company has reported profit falls since the first quarter of 2022 and a loss in the July-September quarter last year.
Prices of key base metals – zinc and lead – were down on the London Metal Exchange during the quarter, lower than in the year ago quarter despite sequential improvement.
While aluminum prices improved year-on-year, they are down from their record high levels in March 2022.
In September last year, billionaire Anil Agarwal launched a sweeping overhaul that would carve up the metals-to-oil conglomerate into six separate businesses, a move aimed at shoring up parent Vedanta Group’s financial performance.
Last week, the Vedanta Group-owned Hindustan Zinc reported its fifth consecutive decline in quarterly profit as the company was also hit by lower zinc prices and sales.
($1 = 83.0810 Indian rupees)
(By Kashish Tandon; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
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