New Delhi : Cairn India Ltd on Friday reported a loss of 2.41 bln rupees for the Jan-Mar quarter as the company was hit by a 5.05-bln-rupee impairment loss in Sri Lanka, apart from grappling with the steep decline in global crude oil prices. This is the first quarterly loss for Cairn India in the last seven years.
With this performance, the Vedanta Group company missed analysts’ estimates of a net profit of 6.39 bln rupees for the reporting quarter. An average of estimates given by 12 brokerages had expected Cairn India’s March quarter net profit to fall 79% on year to 6.39 bln rupees.
The company’s revenue in Jan-Mar, after profit sharing with the government and royalty expenses, fell 47% on year to 26.77 bln rupees from 50.49 bln rupees in the year-ago period, which is more or less in line with Street expectations.
Analysts had expected sales to fall 48% on year to 26.07bln rupees. Cairn India attributed the fall in net sales to low crude oil prices and lower volumes by 3%. The company paid total profit petroleum of 5.21 blnrupees to the government, apart from 4.62 bln rupees as royalty for its flagship Rajasthan block.
