VEDL Vedanta Limited

By Alex MacDonald

LONDON--Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) bore the brunt of falling oil and zinc prices in its fiscal third-quarter, with a 51% drop in earnings and steep rise in net debt at the India-based diversified natural-resources group.

The U.K.-listed Vedanta said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 51% to $494 million in the three months ended Dec. 31 from the same period a year before.

Revenue tumbled 27% to $2.4 billion during the same period on declines oil, zinc, and copper prices.

The group's oil and gas division, typically the main contributor to Vedanta's earnings, reported a 72% decline in Ebitda to $95 million, knocked lower by lower oil and gas prices and a 7% drop in oil and gas output to 18.65 million barrels of oil equivalent in the quarter from the same period the previous year.

Vedanta's zinc operations reported a 45% decline in Ebitda to $218 million, also on lower prices and a drop in output from its zinc operations outside India, offsetting an increase in production from the grou's Indian Zinc operations.

In contrast, the company's copper, iron ore and power divisions all generated higher Ebitda during the period, buoyed by the ramp up of iron ore output from its operations in the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa and better performance from is copper operations in Zambia.

The company said net debt rose to $8.6 billion at Dec. 31 compared with $7.5 billion three months before. Net debt should return to that level in the current quarter on reductions in working capital, Vedanta said.

-Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2016 03:05 ET (08:05 GMT)

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