Vedanta Limited (NSE: VEDL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated Apr. 30, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Charanjit Singh — Group Head, Investor Relations
Deshnee Naidoo — Group Chief Executive Officer
Arun Misra — Executive Director
Ajay Goel — Chief Financial Officer
Sunil Gupta — Chief Operating Officer, Aluminium Business
Anup Agarwal — Chief Financial Officer, Aluminium Business
Chris Griffith — Chief Executive Officer, Vedanta Base Metals
Hitesh Vaid — Chief Financial Officer, Cairn Oil and Gas
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Ashish Kejriwal — Analyst
Amit Lahoti — Analyst
Aditya Welekar — Analyst
Indrajit Agarwal — Analyst
Ritesh Shah — Analyst
Pallav Agarwal — Analyst
Amit Dixit — Analyst
Raashi Chopra — Analyst
Presentation:
Charanjit Singh — Group Head, Investor Relations
Evening everyone and welcome to Vedanta Limited Q4 and full year financial year 25 earnings call. On behalf of Team Vedanta, I thank you all for joining us today. I hope you had the chance to look at the press release, earnings presentation and detailed financial statements uploaded on the website of stock exchanges and also on the company website.
On this call from the Dansa side we have with us our newly appointed group CEO is JT Naidu. A seasoned leader in the metal and mining space with over 27 years of global experience. This appointment marked the homecoming for Ms. Naidu who was previously with Vedanta from 2014 to 2020 and leading the base metal and Vedanta Zinc International business. As the CEO, we also have on the call Mr. Arun Mishra, our Executive Director, Mr. Ajay Goyal, Group CFO Mr. Sunil Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, Aluminium Business Mr. Anoop Agarwal, CFO, Aluminum Business Mr. Hitesh Vad, CFO, Oil and Gas Business and Mr. Chris Griffith, CEO, Vedanta Business.
We will begin with the opening remarks from Ms. Naidu followed by an update on the company’s operational performance by Mr. Arun Mishra and financial highlights by Mr. Ajay Goyal. And thereafter we will open the lines for Q and A. This call is covered by the costly statement on slide 44 of the results presentation.
With this, I now hand over the call for Ms. Naidu. Over to you, Deshmi.
Deshnee Naidoo — Group Chief Executive Officer
Good evening everyone. Thank you, Charanjeev. It’s a pleasure to address you all as the newly appointed Group CEO. Returning to Vedanta feels like coming home. And I’m excited to lead us into our next era of growth and transformation. Over the last 25 years, Vedanta has grown into India’s foremost natural resources conglomerate. Under the visionary leadership of our chairman, Mr. Anil Agarwal, we are entering an exciting chapter we call Vedanta 2.0. The goal is to transform the company into a $100 billion Sri Kumindu Energy technology powerhouse. Serving not just India but the world. This vision is rooted in creating long term value for our shareholders, the communities we operate in and the planet we all share.
Looking at the broader economic landscape, FY25 was a good year for commodities. Global primary aluminium demand grew by 2.7% and zinc demand saw a 2% increase. In India, primary aluminium demand increased by 12% year on year and zinc around 6%. That’s a 4% and a 3% increase over and above global growth respectively driven by robust domestic economic expansion and infrastructure development. Now FY26 has started on a relatively volatile note with the global economy facing uncertainty due to the announced U.S. tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs we have since seen. However, we are well positioned to weather these uncertain times with over 50% of our aluminium production and around 75% of our zinc production sales in India.
Sidantha’s performance is strongly integrated with India’s growth story. Economists are forecasting India’s GDP to grow by over 6% in FY26 and that’s despite the tariff impact. Our margin improvement story remains largely intact. While the Alami prices of the commodities such as zinc and aluminium are lower compared to their annual average levels of FY25. Input costs have also seen a material decline. For example, aluminium prices have declined by approximately $300 per ton from their teeth of $2,700 per ton just in March 2025, while alumina prices have dropped by around $450 per tonne from their peak of $800 per tonne in December 2024.
We are all set to benefit from our enhanced asset base given the commissioning of our second 1.5 million tonnes per annum train at Lanzigar, our 435,000 tonnes smelter bulkhole and the new value added product capacity that we are bringing on in FY26 in aluminium. The benefits of our backward integration efforts will be realized during the year with the commissioning of our bauxite mines and new coal mines. We see the incremental value creation from our new assets offsetting any downside that the weakening in broader macroeconomic terms may pose for Vedanta. So we are well positioned. ESG principles are integral to our strategy.
Safety is a core value for us in the company. We are dedicated to learning from our safety incidents and are committed to our zero fatality goals. Every leader at Vidanka is expected to challenge unsafe practices and uphold our safety standards, ensuring that our workforce returns home safely every day. In FY25 we secured power delivery agreements of over 1 gigawatt of renewable energy and we will enable significant reduction in emissions from our operations in the coming years. We are proud to have directly benefited 26 million women and children and empowered 1.46 million families to skilled training.
Our efforts have been validated by third party agencies. Kudanta Aluminium ranked second while Hindustan Zinc secured first place in their respective peer groups in the S and P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. We are making good progress with our Demerger plan aiming to create skill play entities that will enhance strategic focus and operational flexibility. In FY25 we delivered our highest annual revenue of 150,725 rupees per row and its second highest EBITDA of 42,542 rupees crore. We also made progress on our $9.5 billion capital expenditure program with $5.5 billion already spent including 1.5 billion in FY25. The remaining $4 billion will be invested within the next two years supporting our strategic projects on volume expansion and backward integration.
In conclusion, Vedanta 2.0 is about our new vision for growth, governance and stakeholder interest. We are transforming the company into a global leader in critical minerals, energy and technology and ensuring long term value creation for all stakeholders. This exciting transformation will redefine Vedanta’s position on the global stage and position us as a key player in the industry of the future.
Thank you. I now hand over to Arun.
Arun Misra — Executive Director
Thank you, Deshmi. Good evening everyone. As we initiate our journey on Vedanta 2.0 it gives me immense pleasure to share with you the performance of the year that has gone by and reflect upon some of the key milestones that demonstrates the strong foundations on which the Vedanta Group stands today. I am happy to share that Vedanta has delivered the highest annual revenue in its history of rupees 150,725 crores up 10% year on year. We also reported our second highest EBITDA of rupees 43,541 crore up 37% year on year reflecting strong operational performance. I am pleased to highlight that our key businesses Aluminium and zinc have continued to maintain their cost leadership positions on the global cost curves reinforcing our competitive strength in the industry despite the volatility of global commodity markets.
Now let me share some individual business specific insights starting with the aluminium business. The aluminium business has achieved its highest ever annual metal production of 2,422 CET thereby surpassing our volume guidance for FY25. In quarter four. The business delivered an all time high quarterly volume of value added production of 338kt. Implying 16% year on year growth which has translated into best ever net effective premium of around $300 per tonne. On the cost side, the business achieved hot metal production cost excluding alumina at $920 per ton which is the lowest in last four years. Our total cost of production inclusive of alumina saw an increase due to the carry forward of a high cost alumina inventory from the previous quarter.
The benefit of softening of the global alumina prices will be reflected in the cost of production numbers of Q1 and Q2 of FY26. The EBITDA margin per ton of our aluminium business in quarter four jumped 47% year on year to $880 per ton. Moving to Zinc India we achieved 310,000 tonnes of mined metal production and 270,000 tonnes of refined metal production in quarter four which enabled us to deliver highest ever annual mined metal production of 1.095 million tonnes of refined metal production of 1.052 million tonnes. This year the production cost of the quarter stood at $994 per ton which is 5% year on year improvement.
We surpassed 13.1 million ton of available metal reserves for the first time since underground transition in our Zinc international business. Overall volume increased 52% year on year and 9% quarter on quarter to 50,000 tonnes. Our Ellsberg mines delivered a strong 89% year on year and 15% quarter on quarter increase in MIC production of 41,000 tons. We are currently producing at a monthly run rate of 18,000 tonnes. With continued improvement in mining performance at and ore availability we are confident to achieve our production guidance of 235 to 265,000 tonnes. On the cost side we achieved our guidance of $1,300 per ton on full year basis driven by higher and efficient production and lower PTRC.
Talking about oil and gas business quarter four production stood at 96.2 kilobits impacted by natural decline in MBA field and offshore blocks. We drilled 10 infill wells across the Saraswati and Paishwaria fields in quarter 4 FY25 thereby taking the total count of infill wells to 28. I am pleased to note that K managed to acquire seven of the 28 blocks in the latest round of OLP auction taking our total portfolio to 63 blocks spanning 73,000 square kilometers. On iron ore business has seen a strong increase in quarterly production rising 24% year on year and 40% quarter on quarter driven by steady ramp up of Bitterling mine operation in Goa.
Now let me provide an update on our key growth projects starting with aluminium, we are on track to commissioning the Landigat refinery train with the first metal production from the train targeted in the current quarter. The bulkhouse smelter expansion of 435,000 tonnes per annum is an advanced stage and with the commissioning targeted in the first half of the current financial year at Zinc India, our 160,000 tons per annum roaster at Biwari will be commissioned in the current quarter and a 510,000 tonnes per annum fertilizer plant in quarter four of this current fiscal year. At Zinc International our phase two expansion project is targeting commissioning in the second half of the current fiscal year.
In our Marshall Power business, 300 megawatts of MINAFC power plant is now commissioned. The remaining 700 megawatt capacity is targeted for commissioning in the first half of this current fiscal year. The unit one of Essena Power plant is also scheduled for commissioning in first half of this fiscal year when the unit 2 is expected to start operation in March 26th. Speaking about our ESL facility, we are expecting total hot metal capacity to increase from 1.7 million ton to 3.3 million ton per annum by FY26 end with plans to further debottlenecking to 3.5 million tons per annum in FY27.
In conclusion, we have delivered an outstanding quarter four performance and ended the year on a high note where we not only delivered the highest ever annual volume for aluminium and zinc but also broke down the cost of production significantly reaching a four year low cost in Zinc India and its alumina cost of production at our aluminium business. Looking ahead, we believe that FY26 holds tremendous potential for Vedanta. The completion of E growth and integration projects will continue to drive our volumes and margins. We are confident of continuing to create long term value for all our stakeholders.
I will now hand over to Ajay for an update on financial performance.
Ajay Goel — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Arun and good evening everyone. I am pleased to share that this year we have achieved a significant milestone with our highest ever annual revenue crossing rupees 1.5 lakh crores. In addition we have also delivered our second highest EBITDA of rupees 42,541 crores driven by structural changes in operations and strategic initiatives with a strong domestic demand. This performance is further supplemented by key corporate actions that have significant in our balance sheet and capital structure solutions. Coming to fourth quarter FY25 I am pleased to share that we have delivered our highest ever quarterly revenue of 39,789 crores up 14%.
YOY EBITDA reached 11,618 crores reflecting an impressive 30% growth. YOY EBITDA margin increased to 35% with its highest in last 12 quarters representing a surge of 455 basis points worldwide PAT of Rs. 4,961 crores marking an exceptional growth of 118% YUI now coming to highlights for the full year annual revenue is up 10% YUI and EBITDA is up 37% YUI with EBITDA margin of 34%. This YUI composition focuses on core performance and excludes one time gain from team arbitration that we recorded last year. Our PAT for the full Fiscal stands at 20,535 crores marking a remarkable increase of 172% growth and finally ROC at about 27% with a 371 basis point improvement.
YOY turning to our balance sheet and as in March 2025 our net debt stands at 53,251 crores which represents a decrease of more than Rupees 3,000 crores. YUI this reduction is primarily attributable to to cash operations at the same time waived actions that took last year for example the QIP or offer for sale for zinc shares which has been partly offset by CAPEX growth and sustaining at the same time rewarding our shareholders to dividend. Additionally, we also maintained our maturity of debt which is more than three years. This quarter also witnessed significant improvement in our net debt to EBITDA ratio which has improved to 1.2x as compared to 1.5x in FY24 reflecting effective debt management and much more stunned financial position.
And finally we ended the year with a strong liquidity position of 20,602 crores representing a 34% increase. YoY on demerger I would like to share that following a favorable voting from shareholders and the creditors in the meeting held on 18th of February 2025, we have moved the second motion petition before NCLT seeking terminal approval to proceed on demerger. We anticipate completing the demerger by September 2025 quickly in terms of corporate actions and deleveraging, Vedanta you may have noted last year has firmly established itself as one of the most productive companies in terms of executing strategic corporate actions.
This year we witnessed number of such actions including 8.5 thousand ports via TID rupee 2,100 crores via office for Essentials half a billion through equity partnership at our parent company Vedanta Resources and also refinancing 3.1 billion bond portfolio for parent company at lower cost, longer maturities and much congenial terms and conditions. All these actions have supported us in achieving a deleveraging of 1.2 billion at group level out of which 0.7 billion at parent company and half a billion at Vedanta India ZDL As a result, the debt of our parent company ZRL has decreased to 5 billion which is the lowest in a decade and the leverage at group level has improved to 2x from 2.7x a year ago.
With this progress, both Vedanta Limited and its parent entity now maintains a strong level position than most of our key global peers. Furthermore, the credit rating has also seen substantial improvement. Last year both Tessel and ICRA has augmented the video rating to AA from AA minus and vrl, our parent company has seen an impressive C notch improvement reaching B from CCC by S&P. In conclusion, FY25 has been a landmark year for Vedanta driven by operation, acquisitions, disciplined capital management and timely strategic initiatives. These actions yielded returns for shareholders and established with the DANPA as a major wealth creator in India for FY25.
As we usher into FY26 we do so with renewed energy and strategic clarity. Our focus will remain sharp on scaling up volumes, unlocking further cost opportunities, fast tracking high impact growth projects and executing the remerger to unlock long term value. And with these changes, Vedanta 2.0 is not just a new chapter, it is a fundamentally transformed enterprise.
Thank you and now I will hand over to moderator for any Q and A.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchdown telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from. The question queue you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
We’ll take our first question from the. Line of Ashish Kejriwal from Noama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Ashish Kejriwal
Hi good evening everyone. Thanks for the opportunity and many congratulations for good set of numbers on this. Sir, I have a couple of questions to start with Alumina. So we have been consistently getting somewhat delayed in our ramp up of alumina plant though we have capacity of 3.5 but we were running at 2 to 2 million tonnes. So my question was is this based on the guidance which we have given for 33.1 million ton for FY26? Is this based on sesame mine coming in or without that also can we do that and when can we see this run rate? That’s my first question.
Deshnee Naidoo
Thank you Ashish. It’s destiny Ashish. I’ll start and then I’ll hand over to Sunil to complement. So firstly Ashish to your point the first one and a half million Ton train is actually in production but of course it does take time to ramp up. So current production is in place and that’s just under 1.8 to 2 million tonnes. And our first one and a half is in train. If I look at this past year’s performance as a site we delivered 1.9 million tonnes of total production. In terms of your question and I’ll put it into two parts the overall ramp up is going to be 5 million tonnes.
But at the end of this fiscal year for us we intend to be at an exit run rate of close to four and the total production for the year will be just over 3 million tonnes. That’s taking into account our ramp up plan in terms of the 5 million tonnes by FY27 we hope to be close to those numbers. But to show you the confidence in the process that the team has we’ve already started to commission train 2 to have our first Metro Fund helpline 4 this past month. Now you asked us about bauxite and how that is linked to what’s happening in the ramp up of the plant.
I’m going to hand over to Sunil but I can tell you that we are working on many plans. Firstly it includes what do we do with integrated production. But Sunil and the team has a plan as well.
So Sunil over to you.
Sunil Gupta
Thanks a lot desmi and thanks Mr. President for this question. So what Deshmi has just now said that we are ready for the launching refinery and this year we are planning to start the production of 3.1 million. 3.1 million ton of production from Vanjugar. And for that we have a sufficient cocktail. Your question that seasonably whether seasonably will. Come and it will not affect our production. We are ready with the seasonally.
We are hopeful that the quarter mine. And even if we slip in the. Seasonally also we have the ultimate plant to cover up. So I’m assuring that for want of. Boxes we are not going to lose any enema production because we have several. Other domestic sources also and we have other important places. Imported bus is also available from different sources which we have identified. So for bulk of update the element. Of production is not going to stop.
Ashish Kejriwal
Thank you sir. But again we have been definitely talking about that we have the capability to produce but because of one of the other reason we are not able to produce in last one half. So out of 3.5 million tonnes we still are running at 2 million tonnes on date. So I don’t know If Sajimadi Siddi Mali 9 does not come in from where we can source box height and run the plant at 3 million. So when can we see this mandate? Sir? Any quarter.
Sunil Gupta
Million. Now we are going to the first. In the main we are going to take the 2.6, 2.7 million and 3 million by June.
Ashish Kejriwal
Okay. So in second quarter definitely you can see 3 million. Sorry ma’am. That is good
Deshnee Naidoo
actually maybe, yeah maybe to simplify it, you know we need 9 million tonnes of bauxite or a 3 million tonnes in terms of run rate. Right. For this and what Sunil, to summarize, we have sources for all of them. PG money, mine development continues and for the year we are looking at just over a million tonnes. Assuming all the plans go, everything goes according to plan and we start producing by August this year. So the point I want to make is even when PGMALI comes online with you, we’re still going to need other sources of.
Ashish Kejriwal
Thank you. Second question is on our demerger only because what we understand is that we need to transfer mining lease also to different companies and then, then only we can have our no demerger complete. Because remember in 201011 when Cesar Goa and Starlight was there, we need to reverse merge with Cesar because you know mining transfer was an issue.
Now here we are seeing that CB Marxite mine as well as coal mines that’s under Vedanta Limited level and now we have to transfer it to Vedanta Aluminum. So do you think that first we have to transfer or sign the mining deals under Vedanta Limited and then we have to transfer to Vedanta Aluminium and after that only we can complete our demeasure plan or am I missing something?
Deshnee Naidoo
Ashish, you are right. This is part of the overall approval that we have in our site. Of course the process is happening right now in NCLT is to approve the overall scheme. The team has a detailed approval plan including all of the mining licenses that will start being approved. In fact have already started the process. We are still confident with all of the processes that are happening in parallel to complete the process by September 21st.
Ashish Kejriwal
Sure. And lastly we have been committing that we are going to reduce Vedanta Resources debt by around $3 billion. And out of that $2 billion we have already paid. That’s very commendable. Going forward, if I look at the repayment schedule it seems that next four years we have to repay something like $2 billion. So my question is that this entire debt we are going to repay or part of it, we are going to refinance also because for next four years we have a repayment schedule of just $2 billion. And in that question only, I hope that brand fee is still 3% of standalone revenue and which is continuing till when? Thank you.
Ajay Goel
That’s correct, Ashish. Thank you. So you’re right. We have witnessed over the last couple of years the entire path of deleveraging Vedanta Resources. At the same time the entire 3.1 billion worth of bonds getting a refinance. It also threatens maturity curve. And in the last bond refinancing the maturity is as long as more than eight years. That means less cash requirement at Vedanta Resources. Now let us look at FY26, the ongoing fiscal year. The total loan maturity is about 920 million. And if you also add interest cost half a billion or 550. Total cash requirement at Vedanta Resources in the current year is about 1.4 to 1.5 billion.
This number used to be almost double in the years just gone by now against 1.5 billion of the cash requirement. What are the sources? So brand fee you write it remains 3%. That number is almost 400 million in the current year which has already been paid contractually as we do in the first month for the 16th. The second source of cash is dividend. Even if you pay a normalized dividend with about 6% yield that amount will be almost 800 million received at Vedanta Resources, the foreign branches. 0.8 billion is a dividend is 1.2. And that leaves only a small delta of almost 270 odd million that always can be refinanced.
So overall, by paying almost half the dividend than the recent average we can deleverage Vedanta Resources by 600 million. The current system. So our overall target of reaching to 3 billion debt in two years remains intact. It will be mostly through operating free cash flows at the same time without leveraging the Danta India.
Ashish Kejriwal
Yeah, thanks Ajay. My only question was because for next four years our repayment schedule suggests a 2 billion dollar debt repayment only. So we don’t need to refi actually or no. If we refi only for lower interest cost then that there is an issue.
Charanjit Singh
Yeah, Ashish. Given that there are, there’s a big queue of people.
Ashish Kejriwal
Thank you so much.
Charanjit Singh
Yeah, I’ll take it offline with you after this call.
Ashish Kejriwal
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the. Line of Amit Lahoti from mk. Please go ahead.
Amit Lahoti
Thanks for the opportunity. Given that bauxite and alumina prices have come down significantly. How do we think about the benefit. In terms of cost of production in. FY26 from the current cost of $2,000 per ton? I have seen the guidance but if you can basically walk me down to how do we reach there. So that’s my first question.
Deshnee Naidoo
Thank you Amit. I’m going to hand over to Anu.
Anup Agarwal
Thank you. And quarter four we did a cost of $2,000 as you see was somewhere around closer to $11 million. This is already covered and also mentioned by that given that we are targeting 100 at 3 million annual production and in the first quarter itself we’re looking at bringing around 55% of our requirement from our cattle sources. So this is one of the second which the imported price is coming down from the levels that we saw closer to 800 to where we are now 400, 350. You will see that around $225 to $250 cost which we optimized in those water miles.
Now coming to the power cost you would have observed last few quarters. Okay. We have done substantial improvement both in terms of coal prices, logistics in terms of the improving the base position and losing our power plant. So we expect another 40, $45 coming from the power cost. We are seeing a small headwind in terms of cargo but next, next week see very clearly the cost coming down closer to maybe the guidance that we’ve given maybe embrace the upper side even in quarter one hopefully. I’ll answer your question.
Amit Lahoti
Yes, sure. Thank you. And my second question is on the. Updated timelines of Sigmali and coal mines commissioning. So I sense that there has been some delay in Sigmali because in the. Last quarter it was supposed to be. Commissioned in Q2 of FY26 and now it seems to have moved to Q3. So that is one. And then if you can outline the coal mine commissioning timeline.
Sunil Gupta
I think for the presumably mind we. Have already completed the land acquisition. 97% land acquisition is there. We are almost in the last leg of the forest placement the first month. And if you ask me the EC you see already we are, we have preowned the issue. We are targeting that we are going to get the issue in June 20180 to 5.
So we are hopeful that we are. Going to commit the operation of pre mine by quarter two, FY26 this is what for the presumably mine coming to the coal mines, the formula mines which we have set in the quarter three, FY26 we are going to commit the operation and for our Dogar Padi coal. Mine we are expected that we are. Going to commence the operation from last. Quarter of the FY2.
Deshnee Naidoo
Thank you. Sunil and Amit. Just to confirm the Sigmali timeline is still the timeline that we committed to in the previous reporting period of first or the second quarter FY26 and full ramp up by the fourth quarter FY36. So no changes.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Aditya Vereker from Access Securities. Please go ahead.
Aditya Welekar
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I just want to know what is the currently, what is the sourcing mix for bauxite and alumina in terms of Captiva and third party and once the CGMELLE mine comes online how that mix will change.
Deshnee Naidoo
Yeah, Anup, I think this is an extension of the previous question.
Anup Agarwal
Thank you. I have already covered. In quarter one we are seeing 55% of the coming from our capital and as we land going to the quarter four and releases production capacity closer to 4 million 65% of it will be capital and the balance here will be now coming to. Bauxite is divided into two parts. One is S1 then we don’t have and then the S2. So 60% of the B we have secured through domestic sources and other domestic sources and the balance in S1 is primarily important and in S2 it will be domestic chop.
Aditya Welekar
Okay. Yeah. Yeah yeah. Thanks for that. The second is on the conversion cost. In this quarter we we can see on a sequential basis the conversion cost for aluminium has dropped sharply. So in the previous quarter it was $107 per ton which has come down to 49 this quarter. And this looks structural in nature. So is it sustainable going forward?
Anup Agarwal
So you’re right out of this. No, $40 is a one time cost which is due to it would be of some old union right back. So that is not structural balance, it’s a structural maybe 10, $15.
Aditya Welekar
Okay, understood. Thank you. That’s it from my.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from clsa. Please go ahead.
Indrajit Agarwal
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on hedging. What are our current hedging positions that we have across minerals?
Ajay Goel
Sure. I mean over the last couple of years we have been actively tracking and participating in the hedging program and even in the current year when the pricing has been a bit of volatile as a year beginning this area is under active consideration. So hedging position for the current fiscal is mostly in LM. So almost our annual volumes 12% almost 275kt has been already hedged and the hedging rate is $2655 per tonne. Secondly in case of Zinc international a small quantity 50kt is already hedged, it’s almost 28. But in summary we are watching this area very closely and we will take the positions as market moves.
Indrajit Agarwal
Sure. Thanks Ajit. This is helpful. Also if you recall in last year’s Investor day you had highlighted two EBITDA targets $5 billion for sorry $6 billion for 25 and 7 and a half billion dollar for 27. While we have fallen short of FY25 despite commodity prices being resilient or robust, how confident are we of the 27 target of $7.5 billion
Ajay Goel
last year we guided historically our guidance has been in the gate around volume, cost and Capexes and Ebitda guidance during our conversation was about 6 billion so against 6 billion it was at a group level so we are about 5.5.
So there is some gap but not miles apart in the current year. If you look at one page in the IR document it talks about guidance again on the volume, cost and capex we aren’t guiding for now for EBITDA and as pricing stabilizes we may guide on EBITDA as well. But important thing to know if you look at the guidance the volume at the midpoint of the guidance is about 10% growth versus last year. Cost again from the midpoint is about again 9% and 1 1.5% is NP net net in FY26 we are facing 20% growth led by operations which is volume, cost and NP.
Now even with the current pricing current spot, our EBITDA with these numbers will be far bigger than the last year and as I mentioned as it stabilizes if you see 10th or 11th of April post tariff the pricing and right now pricing across zinc, aluminium and Brent has recovered by 5%. So one should look at the growth led by volume, cost and energy. We have to wait and watch.
Deshnee Naidoo
I think indrajit just to add to that on aluminium as we’ve just been discussing we would have been shy of our cost numbers because of the spike in alumina prices that we saw globally last year and that contributed to not meeting the internal or the EBITDA number. Similarly on Hindustan yun slightly shy of the metal that we would have liked to produce despite the good efforts that Arun and the team have made in terms of their mining times and bring it to national I think when Cliff talks it’s good to see where we ended the year, but we did fall short of our target in terms of production in the first half because we chose to catch up on our mining trends.
So those were, I would say, the levers that Ajay just spoke about. Those are the reasons why we were slightly shy of hitting our EBITDA numbers against the improved aluminum.
Indrajit Agarwal
Thank you. And lastly, how is Konkona copper mine ramping up and any plans of getting it into moving it to India entity yet?
Deshnee Naidoo
Thank you for that. I’m going to hand over to Chris to talk about our very exciting copper growth story in Zambia. Chris.
Chris Griffith
Hi, Destiny. Thanks very much and thanks for the question. Yes, I think we’re making very good progress in the ramp up of kcm. Remember, we only got the mine back in August, started production in September and we’ve ramped up Kcm to about 45,000 tonnes of integrated copper, of which about just under 30 was from our own production and 17 from the custom production. So we’re ramping up very nicely I think, this year and we will give some updated guidance, I guess, especially in the next call. But previously we said, when we gave market guidance in October, we said that we’ll do about 150,000 tonnes of copper in 2026.
I’m very pleased to say that we on track to deliver that and probably a bit more. So as I said, we’ll probably give you more updated guidance but the ramp up of KCM is going really well. We’ll be above the 150,000 tonnes, probably closer to sort of 170, 180. But that’s not the guidance for now, but just to let you know what that ramp up is looking like. So overall, you know, on this amazing KCM assets this year we’ll see a ramp up. We’ll be cash positive this year, starting to make money investing in the business, starting to invest in the new capital to complete the KDMP project to ramp up to 300,000 tonnes.
So I think overall this great asset is ramping up nicely now that we’ve got the assets completely back in our own hands and the investment that we’ve committed to the Government of Zambia of a billion dollars over five years is very much on track and we’ll probably invest just over $300 million for this financial year, both in some fix and some growth, but also in the major completion project of kdmp. Yeah, so overall going quite nicely in the ramp up.
Ajay Goel
The second part of the question was regarding the end plans of bringing TCM to India entity. Right now as Chris mentioned our focus rightfully so remains in opera condition and augmenting the volume at QCM and in terms of restructuring right now not under active concentration that may happen in fullness of time, not right now
Indrajit Agarwal
sure. Thank you so much for your answer Sajay that’s all from us.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the. Line of Ritesh Shah from Investech Please go ahead
Ritesh Shah
yeah hi, thanks for the opportunity A couple of questions first one for Deshmi was surprised to see basically copper smelter specific to Saudi Arabia not there on the capex sheet Any specific reasons over here and the current dcrc if we had to go ahead with the project how would we look to justify the underlying economics?
Deshnee Naidoo
I’ll start and I’ll hand over to Chris so we have signed the MOU and of course we are still in the study phase looking at the options once we conclude it and have a final feasibility study with us that will actually indicate the capital amount maybe I’ll hand over to Chris to talk about the progress of the study Chris.
Chris Griffith
Thanks Destiny and thanks Ritesh for the question Look, I think Deshti was correct in saying look we’ve signed the MOU so it’s still very, very early days. We have done a high level feasibility study that we’re in discussions with the government of Saudi and there’s a whole range of enablers that are part of the package of investing in Saudi and it’s currently those enablers that we’re discussing so you know what long term loans, what grants, what what other duty, protection and the like so there’s a whole package of enablers that we currently in discussions with the government of Saudi and depending on how those go will depend on sort of how the project may progress or not.
So I think it’s very early days signed the MoU project looks interesting Saudi looks very interesting. The government are very supportive and are trying to attract all this investment to Saudi and it’s on the basis of those enablers that we in discussions with governments at the moment But I guess it’s still very early days and still some, I guess large yards will have to be covered before we can commit to any capital for that project. Thanks.
Ritesh Shah
Sure.
Deshnee Naidoo
Just to add, I mean, sorry Ritesh, just to add we would have put a little bit of studies money into the growth capital category under others and that’s in our guidance of about 1.5 billion to $1.7 billion so there is some money in there under others pertaining to study costs.
Ritesh Shah
Sure. Thank you My second question is for Ajay. Sir, you indicated six hundred million dollars of production in leverage at drl. I understood the bridge of one point the ask. And then basically you explained four hundred eight hundred which was run fee and dividends. The balance two hundred and seventy. So I was not able to reconcile the six hundred million dollar number, sir.
Ajay Goel
Okay. So if you look at the source of cash at Vedanta Resources I say the brand fee is 400 and dividend. If you assume 6% fee which is less than half the decent cost. So it is 800. So 400 plus 800 is 1.2 against 1.2. The interest cost is 550. And if you also add say 50 million for other expenses. 600. So 600 is expensive. 1.2 is a source of cash. That means deleveraging of 0.6 billion in current year.
Ritesh Shah
Sir, I couldn’t comprehend.
Ajay Goel
Still maybe. In that case
Charanjit Singh
I’ll take it offline with you.
Ritesh Shah
Sure, sure, sure. And just last two questions. Specifically on Menachi and Aetna. Possible to highlight what the cold sourcing is and if at all we have signed any PPAs for both assets separately. And the last one was on bauxite.
What is the rate at which we are procuring bauxite from omc? I read the annual report. I find the rate of almost thousand rupees per ton which looks too low. Is. Is there anything amiss over here? If you could just clarify on that. Thank you.
Charanjit Singh
I’ll take the power and we’ll let Anu take the box. Site query. We haven’t signed any PP as of now. For the first year it’ll be all merchant power short term contracts. So I think we will sign for both the SSA first and then we. Will go for the ppa. More of a medium term ppa. But if you look at the rates in the merchant power market today you will get very good rates. So at least for one year our model will be more like going for the merchant power contracts.
Ritesh Shah
Sure. And bauxite costing specifically from omc.
Anup Agarwal
So Riteshophi, your question on the bauxite omc because that you mentioned that.
Ritesh Shah
Still thousand rupees is way too low. Because if I look at the E option prices the numbers are significantly higher. So I understand it will be X mine and everything else will be extra. So is there anything which is baked in contingent liability that we should be aware of or is this the pricing that we have that Vedanta as a group has from omc?
Anup Agarwal
This is the price which is there today. Of course, of course there will be a small negative going around it, but this is the price.
Ritesh Shah
Okay. So there’s no risk of contingent liability over here. Just a clarification.
Anup Agarwal
Not as of now.
Ritesh Shah
Sure. Thank you so much for the answers. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Pallav Agarwal from Antique Stockbroking. Please go ahead.
Pallav Agarwal
Yeah, good evening. So you know a related question, you know, on the alumina cost because currently market prices around $50 per ton and, and our cost of production at Langeville also seems to be either in that range or a little higher. So once probably the cap to bauxite starts, what sort of cost reduction are we looking at compared to the current cost of production?
Deshnee Naidoo
Thank you. I’m going to get Anu to answer that because it’s the extension of the same question. And
Anup Agarwal
so yes, so long cost, if you assume quarter four will be the cost of around $370. Now it is two factors. One, the bide sourcing, the bide that getting from part of it is to go with that and the part of it is to go with the volume. Going forward, as we ramp up our stressing in quarter one, we expect this cost to be somewhere around 340, $350.
Now coming to your question on what the API or the imported website cost, those are all the X worth cost. The 350 or before is a dollar that we saw in the month of March and April and then we have a $6,070 on top of it. So at this point of time Also in quarter one, we expect our call to be 30, 35 to $50 more compared to even the API that we have seen in the month of April.
Pallav Agarwal
So the API landed cost we’re seeing comparing with that. Other questions again on the Athena power plant. So look at the CAPEX slide. So there’s still a significant amount of unspent capex over there. So how confident are we of, you know, really starting that asset during this year and achieving the targeted plf?
Arun Misra
So don’t equate between, don’t equate between. The CAPEX spend and actual commissioning of the power plant. Part is Commission and next 700 megawatt will be commissioned this year. So absolutely there is no concern on that.
Deshnee Naidoo
Just to confirm, Cena unit 1, 600 megawatts is already being scheduled for commissioning right now quarter one. And the second unit, another 600 megawatts that’s been scheduled for commissioning in quarter four of this financial year.
Pallav Agarwal
So any broad guidance on what type of profitability we can expect from that plant.
Charanjit Singh
So can you repeat please
Pallav Agarwal
now any broad guidance on what profitability we can expect from the Athena power plant?
Charanjit Singh
So we are targeting roughly around rupees two a unit in terms of the EBITDA level, our donation cost is likely to be closer to 3 and a half rupees which will be, let’s say 3 rupees for the variable cost of 2 and 50 pais on the fixed side. And with respect to what we are likely to get in the merchant power market is minimum of five and a half to six rupees.
So if you look into the current prices in the merchant power market for the contracts, what we have for Meenakshi, we are in position to generate per Unit more than 6 and a half rupees at this moment and for the deficit period when the power picks up in the summer, we also have some contracts though for a small quantity from Meenakshi signed for 10 rupees a unit. So the current profitability in the merchant power market is very good. And also the reason that we at least for 12 months will take this route versus going for a long term or medium term PPA. Does that answer your question?
Pallav Agarwal
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that’s, that’s it for my question.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Amit Bixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Amit Dixit
Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations for a good performance. A couple of questions from my side. The first one is essentially on value added products in aluminium. Now if I look at this year it works to around 14%. Now given our production is going to increase to roughly 3 million tonnes at the lower end of the guidance, what kind of value added proportion in terms of percentage can we expect for FY26?
Anup Agarwal
So. So this year if you see we have done 15% and next year we expect it to be somewhere around 70% as we rank up the balance.
Ajay Goel
Sorry, what did you say? 17 or 17 0%. So that means the premium that we have in this quarter, I mean which is Quite impressive at 301, that premium number should actually go up as we go ahead for aluminium.
Anup Agarwal
Yes, so solid. So there are two positives. One if you rightly picked up, is on the value added percentage. The second is on the set, both of which we are seeing right for on quarter. But there are some small heading also you should keep in mind. Road on S has gone away. While that’s crossing and that’s gone away, it takes away around $20 and this lower MME and some lower reality that we are seeing in the market that takes away another $30. So next you look at FY25 we seeing increase of 25 to $30. It could have been more but for the broadcast.
Amit Dixit
Okay, got it, got it. The second question is on oil and gas. So the guidance is 95 to 100 kvpd. Now we closed the quarter at around 96. So are we expecting an uptick in oil production possibly from whatever endeavors we have done over a period of time and if so from which quarter we can expect that. And also if you could give an indication of OLP percentage in the total production in this year, FY26.
Deshnee Naidoo
Thank you. I’m actually going to hand over to Hitesh over to you.
Hitesh Vaid
Yeah. Hi Amit. Currently the number was around 104 and we have guided next year over 95, 200 while our quarter four number is at around 396. Now the first part is, you know some of the things which we built during this year is primarily driven by some of the premiers which we had in our Bangla bill. Those premiers are now behind us and that’s why now quarter on quarter basis we have seen a stable compared to what we see earlier during the first half of the financial year. Now going forward, what will work for us? How do we assure to deliver our guided volumes for the FY26? I think one of the key factors would be our ability to manage the decline where we as I said last few quarters, a few couple of quarters, we have done well.
Second is, you know we have built quite a number of wells during the last six, eight months. Those are being ramped up progressively which will add around say 7 to 8,000 of incremental warming for us. Additionally we are still doing green wells both in gas field as well as oil field which we expect to add around 5,000 incrementally more. The third part is more the going forward on volume is our ASP project. As we said earlier, we have commenced to injection in select pad. Now you know for the larger cluster of pads we are almost ready to inject.
We will do the first injection in a larger cluster around July of 2025 and that new injection would take around five to six months, zeros the volume upside and we start seeing the impact of that injection. And of course once we see the benefits say around end of December, we would obviously extend the aspect to all the customers in Malnai and then of course in Bhajan and as well. So these are some of the Key things which we are doing as far as Vajikistan is concerned, not only to continue climb but help it to grow, especially through and ASP project.
In addition, during the second half of the year we are also doing infill wells both on the east coast and the west coast given the regular window available after monsoon during that time. What we’ll also do is one of our DHS ambient which is offshore west coast just near to our current position can be seen. So we’ll bring three barrels there as well, which will add volumes. But it will take you around 18 months further down the year to come into play. But it will add substantial volumes. It will be a nuclear which will give us around 15,000 barrels of production.
Now the important part which you said is around the timeline. We expect that our volume trajectory will go up from Q2 onwards. We will be at around 98, 99 in this Q1. And then of course the trajectory goes up and we have a higher volume during Q3 and Q4 when we start the playoff incident in offshore as well as the benefits of esg. Again, I think beyond this, some of the few things for us I think came beyond the current volume is what we are doing to grow our volume. And that is more importantly driven by the robust portfolio which we now have on the exploration side.
And recently we have said that, you know, we are starting the shale drilling campaign in Rajasthan. So the well gets spreading in July of this year and we do three wells and we get to know how it works out for us, how are we able to make them economical. And then we’ll come out based on the results on that implementation in Northeast, we have got first oil discovery in our OLP block, what we have now named as Bhudra. And we are doing couple of appraisal events starting next month which will then give us volumes later during the year From Northeast India, the Deepwater project is anyway going ahead.
We are acquiring data through CSEM survey. We’ll have the results somewhere in July, August and then we knocking the risk for next year. So these are some of the key things which will give us larger volume going forward. But I think in the near term focus is on managing decline, growing the volume, ensuring that we meet our guidance. The other part I think which you asked importantly is how much volume is being contributed through our OLP blocks. Currently there’s around roughly 4% and I think now focus is also on larger volumes through the OLP as well as the DSS because towards the EBITDA they contribute disproportionately much more compared to the volume number they contribute.
I think that is one of the focuses. So that’s all from my side if you have any questions.
Amit Dixit
So any indication you will give on OLP proportion? It was 4% in FY25 for FY26. How much can we expect the broad range will also do?
Hitesh Vaid
Correct. So you know, what we are working on is trying to figure out whether we can reach around, you know, 8 to 10%. You know, in Q4. It will depend upon, you know, our current G producing fleet. Yet we are doing couple of more wells in May. We are more appraisal expiration net and then northeast which I said, you know, we have got the discovery and we are looking to monetize during this year. If both of these work then it will be, you know, 10%. And the other part, the DSS which I said, you know, where ambient we had during the event.
But it takes time to since it’s a new offshore development, we’ll have to, you know, build the platform, connect the pipeline. So I think 18 months. But I think the objective is, you know, to move to that 20, 25% in at least, you know, 18 to 24 months.
Amit Dixit
Perfect. Thank you so much and all the best.
Hitesh Vaid
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the. Line of Rashi Chopra from Citigloup. Please go ahead.
Raashi Chopra
Thank you. Sorry these questions might be a bit repetitive because I got my call dropped. But just on the aluminium side again just to clarify. So BALCO has gotten delayed to the first half the BALCO expansion, is that correct? From the first quarter.
Ajay Goel
Anup you want to take it
Anup Agarwal
so. Ly we are still maintaining the guidance of the first met at end of the quarter one. So to that extent, while we said that the first half. But. But by quarter end, quarter June end we have the first.
Raashi Chopra
Okay. And then the alumina three and a half to five. That is in progress.
Deshnee Naidoo
That is correct, Rashi. That is in progress. The team is currently they have commissioned the first 1.5 million ton trains. And on the second train we started to commission. In fact we’ve had metals from South Kan 4 already. And by the end of this year we’re targeting to be at a run rate closer to 4 million tons. And by next year we will hit our 5 million plan rate. So that’s how we’re looking at our Nanjigarh refinery. I think just to also add to the BALCO expansion, I also want to give the team credit here because when we started the project, the team has since done continuous improvement on a project model which again I think is great given all of the expertise that we Unity have in this field.
And we’ve actually added to the capacity and we’ve reduced I think the specific power consumption by about 2.5% or 3%. And they’ve also made some changes to the cathode block. So that has caused some delay up front in terms of order placement and the team is now catching up on that. So that is why we’re still holding to the overall timeline. But the comfort for everyone is that we are holding a far more improved project in balco.
Raashi Chopra
Okay, and then just on the coal blocks again, if you could just kind of give the timeline for all three again please.
Charanjit Singh
Rajshi, Rashi, I think we have answered this so good if you connect offline in the interest of the time. We are already eight minutes behind a should be time. So I think this will be the last question but I am happy to connect with you because this was already answered on the coil while your call dropped.
Raashi Chopra
Okay, no problem then just one. I don’t know if this has been answered but what is the debt repayment at BRL for FY27?
Charanjit Singh
Suggest that you look into the slide. We have given the full details in the. In the deck here, on here.
Ajay Goel
Maybe I’ll take it. So F5 with 26 current fiscal. So 920 million is a debt repayment to do in the current year. Next year FY27 it’s about 675 million. Very clearly the need for cash at VRL in fact is declining rapidly led by both deleveraging and refinancing at the same time. Overall cash flow at Vedanta, India, given the augmented volume compressed cost is much higher. So overall we as a group in terms of cash management is historical best position.
Raashi Chopra
Got it. Thank you.
Ajay Goel
Thank you.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We’ll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Charanjit Singh for closing comments. Over to you sir.
Charanjit Singh
Thank you everyone for taking out the time to join us. I hope most of the questions were answered. For any unanswered question, feel free to touch base with the IR team. We’ll be happy to provide you all the responses and details today itself. So with this we conclude our call. We look forward to reconnecting with all of you towards July end to discuss our Q1 performance. So good day and goodbye.
operator
Thank you on behalf of Vedanta Limited. That concludes this conference. We thank you for your participation and. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.