Miner Vedanta Ltd reported on Wednesday a 34 per cent fall in second-quarter net profit, hit by lower revenue from its zinc operations, rising costs and the shutdown of a smelter in southern India.
The Indian unit of diversified mining group Vedanta Resources has been mired in disputes regarding its Tuticorin copper smelter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu after a protest to shut the plant on environmental concerns turned violent, killing 13 people.
The state ordered the permanent closure of the plant and disconnected its power supply in May.The fate of the smelter, which has an annual production capacity of more than 400,000 tonnes, now lies with an independent judicial committee.Vedanta said its net profit attributable for July-September totalled Rs 1,343 crore ($182 million).
That was down from Rs 2,045 crore a year earlier, but beat a forecast of Rs 1,268 crore by nine analysts, according to Refinitiv data.Earnings were hit by the closure of the Tuticorin smelter, as well as by higher costs due to input commodity price inflation, and "lower volume" at Zinc India and Zinc International, it said without elaborating.Total expenses in the quarter jumped 11.4 per cent to Rs 20,999 crore.Revenue from the group's Zinc Lead - India operations fell 12.8 per cent, while revenue from its Zinc International operations declined by 36.6 per cent.However, revenue from operations for the quarter rose 5.2 per cent to Rs 22,705 crore, Vedanta said in a filing.Shares in Vedantaclosed 0.3 per cent lower at Rs210.55 apiece on the NSE, whose benchmark index Nifty settled 1.9 per cent lower.($1 = Rs 73.96)