The mining company said that the increase in revenue was supported by higher sales volume across businesses, commodity prices and strategic hedging gains.

Profit before tax in the first quarter stood at Rs 7,260 crore, up 1% from Rs 7,171 crore recorded in the same period last year.

EBITDA increased by 7% to Rs 10,741 crore in Q1 FY23 as against Rs 10,032 crore reported in Q1 FY23. The rise in EBITDA was in line with improved operational performance, commodity prices and strategic hedging gains, was partially offset by higher cost of production amidst input commodity inflation.

EBITDA margin decreased to 32% in Q1 FY23 compared with 41% recorded in the corresponding quarter previous year.

Depreciation & amortisation for Q1 FY23 was increased by 16% YoY to Rs 2,464 crore, mainly due to higher depletion charge in Oil & Gas and higher ore production at Zinc India.

In Q1 FY23, finance cost increased 2% YoY to Rs 1,206 crore, mainly due to increase in average borrowings, partially offset by reduction in average interest rate of borrowings. Finance cost was down 10% quarter on quarter due to onetime charges paid in Q4 FY22 and lower average interest rate in Q1 FY23, which was partially offset by increase in average borrowings.

Investment Income for Q1 FY23 declined 20% YoY to Rs 583 crore, mainly due to Mark to Market movement. It was up 12% QoQ due to change in Investment mix.

The company's gross debt increased by Rs 8,031 crore in Q1 FY23 to Rs 61,140 crore as on 30 June 2022. Net debt increased by Rs 5,820 crore in Q1 FY23 to Rs 26,799 crore on 30 June 2022.

Cash and cash equivalents position remain strong at Rs 34,342 crore. The company follows a board-approved investment policy and invests in high quality debt instruments with mutual funds, bonds, and fixed deposits with banks.

Sunil Duggal, chief executive officer of Vedanta, said "I am pleased to report that we have started FY23 with strong performance, underpinned by our world class assets and strength of our business model. We recorded best-ever Q1 EBITDA of Rs 10,741 crore and PAT of Rs 5,592 crore despite inflationary cost pressures. This year, our key priorities will be delivery on committed volumes, timely execution of projects for growth, value addition, vertical integration & cost reduction across our key businesses, and proactive commodity price risk management. We are continuing work on our renewed ESG purpose of “Transforming for Good”.

He further added, "We have increased the number of women in decision-making bodies to 29% and are also among the few Indian companies that have actively recruited members from the transgender community as part of our workforce. I am also happy to inform that we will start reporting our Scope 3 emission from FY22 Sustainability report, three years before our stated timeline. We strongly believe in ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' to make India self-reliant. We are one of the highest contributors to the national exchequer. We are the only domestic private player contributing 25% of India's Oil & Gas production."

On Tuesday, 19 July 2022, the board of directors of the company have approved second interim dividend of Rs 19.50 per equity share i.e. 1950% on face value of Re 1 per share for the financial year 2022-23. The record date for the purpose of payment of dividend is 27 July 2022. The company had declared first interim dividend of Rs 31.5 per share for the year ended 31 March 2022.

Vedanta, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, is one of the world's leading oil & gas and metals company with significant operations in oil & gas, zinc, lead, silver, copper, iron ore, steel, and aluminium & power across India, South Africa and Namibia.

Shares of Vedanta were up 0.80% to settle at Rs 245.50 on the BSE.