Sterlite Industries' CEO Discusses F1Q 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

M.S. Mehta – Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Ashwin. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and thank you for joining us on the Sterlite’s Q1 earning call. We have had a good start to the year on operational front and have delivered excellent set of numbers.

Our revenues were up to over INR10,000 crores by 8% driven by volume growth in lead, silver, at our Zinc India operations and at our copper business and commercial power. Consolidated EBITDA was 2,337 crores reflecting low metal prices and depreciated rupee in cost and realization both. And of course, underlying EPS, as you can see was INR4.2 per share.

I will now briefly walk you through the segment wise performance. First coming to Zinc India, our results for the quarter have shown excellent ramp up of Sindesar Khurd mine, with 70% increase in the volume of silver and lead.

Ore production at SK mine has increased by more than 1.5 times from the year ago. We expect to reach 2 million tonne capacity during the year. Very importantly on silver side, after having delivered 33% growth in the FY ‘12, we are ready to deliver about 45% growth in the current year by positioning ourselves to produce 350 tonnes. As you will have noticed, we produced 80 tonnes in this quarter. We are steadily and rapidly moving towards the 500-tonne mark as we mentioned to you before, which we believe is the silver potential corresponding to delivering capacity at Hindustan Zinc. We are on track to deliver operational performance for the year, as mentioned to you in the earlier calls, which would include some fall of volume in H1, but more than that will be made up in the second half.

Hindustan Zinc, as you know, has reached mineral capacity mark and has been delivering fully exciting performance on the exploration success. We remain positive to continue delivering positive results around our brownfield exploration initiative, by adding more R&R that what we deplete. I think we have an unparalleled track record on discount in the sector. That said I wanted to let you know that Hindustan Zinc is in the final stage of its feasibility report for the next phase of growth, which it well deserves at the back of 45 years plus mine life and further potential to add R&R from our brownfield exploration initiatives.

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