Vedanta Ltd posted its Q3 earnings. The company reported a 26.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 5,354 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2021. In the corresponding quarter last year, the company posted a net profit of Rs 4,224 crore. The company's revenue from operations for the quarter under review rose 50 percent to Rs 34,097 crore from Rs 22,735 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Sunil Duggal, Group CEO, Vedanta, shed light on the company’s performance and its outlook.

Duggal highlighted that despite the rising costs, aluminium performance has been encouraging in Q3. He believes expanding the alumina refining capacity from its current levels will lead to savings for the company. He added that the company is targeting saving aluminium costs by $250-300 per tonne. Going ahead, Duggal is optimistic that aluminium EBITDA per tonne will improve.

He said, “Per tonne EBITDA will drive the overall EBITDA of aluminium business. So the cost went up by USD 400 per tonne; we are trying to shave off the cost by USD 250-300 per tonne in Q4."

"As the commodity prices are looking better compared to Q3, I feel that our EBITDA margin could be better than Q2; the Q2 EBITDA margin per tonne was USD 1,000 odd which fell by around 30 percent in Q3, but we should be able to take our EBITDA margin per tonne past USD 1,000 in Q4,” he added.

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On Hindustan Zinc, he explained that Supreme Court’s order has paved the way for the government to sell its stake. He expects that the government will be able to sell atleast some part of its current stake in Hindustan Zinc in the coming financial year.

He said, “The government is preparing to sell the residual stake and internal process is on and it should happen in the next few months; at least, a part of 29.5 percent, they should be able to sell in the current financial year and maybe the balance going forward.”

On acquisitions, Duggal said that the company is interested in assets like BPCL and the Shipping Corporation of India. He said, “We are participating in whatever opportunities are there in the market like BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India. We have already expressed our interest which the government had invited.”

Watch the video for the full interview

First Published:Jan 31, 2022 11:59 AM IST