Vedanta Limited (VEDL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Near and dear, one, continue to remain safe and healthy. The last time the world experienced a global pandemic was over 100 years ago. Our prime minister and the government had strived and succeeded in mitigating the impact to a great extent. I thank them for that. Apart from the government, each Indian has also acted like a leader reaching now to help the others. The core philosophy of your company is to give back. I'm proud that the Vedanta family too rose to the occasion to support local communities, migrant workers, feed stray animals, set up field hospitals, diverted oxygen from our plants for medical use. We have vaccinated more than 1 lakh employees, business partners and their families and plan to facilitate 5 lakh vaccination for community as well. The 10 field hospital that was set up in record time had proved to be an invaluable support with best of equipment and the treatment that will again be a boon to save life of the third wave hits us as predicted. India is at the cusp of an economic transformation. In coming year, India will grow from a 2.6 trillion economy to 5 trillion economy and then a 10 trillion economy. Today mining contribute only 1.5% to GDP, which -- while metal contributes an additional 2%. The GDP contribution of mining and metal must double, possibly even triple. It is the only way to avoid import dependence of the kind we have seen in crude oil. Policy regime are changing for the good. Fortunately, the government has clear plan for Atmanirbhar Bharat. While the outlook for the mining -- mineral led growth looking robust, we at Vedanta are committed to nation building and to bring in future investment up to 20 billion across our businesses, which will play a crucial role in overall economic growth. In aluminum, we are already India's largest producer. We aim to double our production of silver, which is not only precious metal, but has use in high-tech industry and renewable energy. And steel, which is a significant components of our businesses, we intend to double our capacity. The acquisition of FACOR and its niche ferroalloys businesses is yet another example of our diversification and future readiness. The demand for oil in absolute terms will continue to rise -- raise for many years, and we are committed to increase our domestic production in oil and gas by up to 50%. Along with an economic transformation, India is also beginning an energy transition. The government has rightly committed to reduce emission to combat climate change. The world is going to move towards more material intensive economy, which will need to be supported by robust mining and metal industry. Let me give 2 examples. Electric vehicle, which use 6x the mineral input including copper, aluminum, lithium and cobalt than a regular vehicle. On onshore, wind infrastructure uses 9x more mineral import than a gas-fired power plant. Technology, digitalization are the heart of each business. Vedanta implemented industry-first digital smelter at one of its plant in Jharsuguda, Odisha. Hindustan Zinc also developed technologies effectively manage operation remotely. We have launched the Vedanta Spark program to encourage a startup and create a more robust MSME ecosystem in the mining and metal space. We have emerged stronger, wiser and more future ready. Vedanta reported the highest ever EBITDA of INR 27,341 crore, 30% higher year-on-year. Revenue for FY '21 was at INR 86,863 crores, higher by 4% year-on-year. The company has contributed INR 2.7 lakh crore to the Exchequer in the past 10 years. Vedanta's operation contribute 1% to India's GDP according to the IFC report. The proposed amendment of retrospective income tax is a welcome step and will have positive impact on our group. It shall resolve major ongoing tax litigation amounting to approximately INR 22,000 crores. ESG is at the core of Vedanta operation. We have ways to plant 10 million trees across all our 17 locations every year. For us, zero harm, zero waste, zero discharge is nonnegotiable. Last year, we committed to substantially decarbonize the businesses by 2050, voluntary -- and voluntarily placed to more towards carbon utility. Our ESG focus is being recognized globally. Hindustan Zinc was ranked #1 and Vedanta #2 in the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific ranking. We have released the first climate change report in line with the task force on climate-related financial disclosure, TCFD, become the first Indian metal and mining company to do so. At Vedanta, while profit is important, workforce is crucial. We have placed INR 5,000 crores over the next 5 years on the ambitious social impact program focused on nutrition, women and child development, health care, animal welfare and grassroot level sports. Our new initiative, Swasth Gaon Abhiyaan, aim to send in health care services to -- in 1,000 villages across 12 states, impacting over 20 lakh people. We are scaling up our flagship project, Nand Ghar, our 2,400-model anganwadis aim to impact the lives of 7 crore children and 2 crore women. We have been recognized as a great place to work certified organization. We have about 20% representation of women in senior leadership position. The vision to achieve 33% gender diversity across all level. I would like to welcome the 3 new directors to the Board, Mr. D.D. Jalan, Mr. Akhilesh Joshi and Ms. Padmini Somani and bid farewell to our outgoing director, Mrs. Lalita Gupte and Mr. K. Venkataramanan. Vedanta is on course to deliver sustainable long-term return to all its stakeholders. I would like to thank our parent company, Vedanta Resources, London, for its support, without which we would not be here where we are today. Before I conclude, I thank our shareholders, Board of Director, customer, businesses, business partners, central and state government, local communities, advisers, banks and financial institution and our 1 lakh strong extended family, who make Vedanta the company we are today. Thank you very much. I'll now hand over to the Company Secretary to continue with the proceeding of the meeting. [ Veda ], to you.

Thank you, Chairman. The notice of the meeting and the annual report contain the audited financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2021, and directors' report, along with the auditor's report have already been sent by the electronic mode to those... [Audio Gap]