BRIAN GILBERTSON, the chairman of Vedanta Resources, yesterday suffered the humiliation of having to delay the mining group’s first profits results since its flotation on the London Stock Exchange last December.
Shares in Vedanta slipped 2 per cent to 283p yesterday as the Indian metals group admitted that it would not be able to release full-year figures today because its auditors had not yet signed off on the accounts. A spokesman for the company said: “Obviously, this is very embarrassing but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong behind it.”
Vedanta, whose main cop- per, aluminium and zinc assets are in India, blamed the delay on administrative difficulties in reconciling the accounts of its subsidiaries to meet British accounting standards. The company said it was working with its auditor, De- loitte, and expected to release full-year figures on Monday.
Vedanta also moved to quell any investor unease by confirming that its profit for the year to March 31 would be in line with market expectations and should be “at least” $320 million (£176 million).
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One analyst said: “It’s more embarrassing than damaging. But surely they would have known a week ago and could have let the market know.”
Peter Sydney-Smith, the finance director, said that the decision to delay the results was “prudent”. He said: “The board is taking steps to ensure that the administrative process is strengthened going forward to prevent any recurrence of this situation.”
The delay over the audit is the latest setback for Ved- anta, whose shares have lost 28 per cent of their value since listing at 390p. City institutions accused Vedanta and its bankers of “straightforward greed” after the company dramatically increased the size of its IPO at the last minute.
Mr Gilbertson, former head of BHP Billiton, received a £6 million all-shares “golden hello” when he joined Vedanta, which is controlled by Anil Agarwal, the founder and 57 per cent shareholder.