OREANDA-NEWS. July 06, 2012. OIL AND GAS: Capex cycle ended with completion of Vadinar refinery expansion and optimisation projects

POWER: 1,580MW of new capacity commissioned; 2,800MW now operational

Group Current Price (CP) EBITDA[2]: USD 737.1 million including sales tax benefit but before its subsequent reversal and before foreign exchange impact (2010: USD 697.0 million)

OIL AND GAS:Capex cycle ended with completion of Vadinar refinery expansion and optimisation projects

Vadinar refinery expansion completedin March 2012, raising complexity to 11.8 andcapacity to 18 million tonnes per year/375,000 barrels per day

Vadinar refinery optimisation project to 20mmtpa/405,000bpdcompleted in June 2012,four months ahead of schedule

Current price gross refinery margins at Vadinar refinery improved in 15 month period to USD 4.45 per barrel (excluding sales tax incentive) compared with USD 3.98 per barrel in 2010 

17.1mmt/125m barrels throughput at Vadinar in 15 month period(2010:14.7mmt/107.2mbarrels)

6.8mmt/51.3m barrels throughput at Stanlow refinery for 8 months of ownership,in line with expectations. Significant margin improvement initiatives continuing

POWER:1,580MW of new capacity commissioned; 2,800MW now operational

Two projects commissioned: Vadinar P1, 380MW, and Salaya I, 1,200MW (post period end)

Group of Ministers provisionally approves forest clearance for Mahan coal block

Final forest approval obtained for Aries coal mine – infrastructure under construction

93%-99% power plant availability

SALES TAX AND FUNDING:

USD 300m 3 year debt facility completed to refinance Stanlow acquisition bridge loan

USD 250m 3.5 year loan facility agreed with Essar Global

Gujarat High Court to give direction ondeferred sales tax repayment schedule and interest payments

Advanced discussions with banks regarding c.USD 1 billion loan facility to meet sales tax liability

Reversal of sales tax benefit revenue previously recognised of USD 1,053.7million (USD 645.3million net impact after tax)

RESULTS FOR 15 MONTHS TO MARCH 31 2012 EXCLUDING EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS [1](reflecting switch to March year end):

Strong group revenue growth  up to USD 22.0bn  (2010 12 months: USD 10.0bn), primarily due to higher refining and marketing revenues in India from higher selling prices and the Stanlow refinery acquisition

14% depreciation of Rupee during 15 month period resulted in an overall forex impact of USD 317 million1 on EBITDA2, including revaluation impact and other forex losses of USD 243.2million

Group Current Price (CP) EBITDA2 of USD 737.1 million including sales tax benefit but before its subsequent reversal and before foreign exchange impact (2010: USD 697.0 million)

Profit before tax and profit after tax before exceptional items of USD 129.0 million (2010:  USD 365.5 million) and USD 98.2 million (2010: USD 248.3 million),respectively

Impact of exceptional items on profit before tax and profit after tax of USD 1,276.7 million and USD 862.5 million respectively

Loss before tax and loss after tax after impact of exceptional items of USD 1,147.7 million  and USD 764.3 million, respectively

[1]See page 19 for an analysis of the exceptional items

[2] See pages 16 to 18 for a definition of adjusted EBITDA and CP EBITDA. Note CP EBITDA presented above is on a Group wide basis