Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Limited reported consolidated net profit of Rs 3,017 crore in the December quarter, up 35 percent from same period last year on the back of higher revenues. The company’s net sales in the period under review stood at Rs 22,498 crore, up 6.4 percent from the corresponding period last year as company’s aluminium and zinc India business lent firm support to the topline. Net sales were up on higher commodity prices, rupee depreciation and increased volumes at Zinc India and iron Ore business, partially offset by lower volumes at Oil and Gas business, lower power sales in Talwandi SAbo Power Limited, said the company release today.
Konkola Copper Mines – a subsidiary of the UK-based mining giant Vedanta – has been polluting the main water source of surrounding villages in Chingola, in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, and leaving a trail of human rights and environmental abuses for nearly two decades.
A legal action, brought by more than 2,500 Zambian villagers, including 643 children, against Konkola Copper Mines Plc and Vedanta Resources Limited, has settled out of court, it was announced today (19 January) in a joint statement from the mining companies and Leigh Day, the English law firm representing the claimants.
ActionAid Zambia works closely with communities in the Chingola area through its partner, the Catholic Diocese of Ndola. This work provides a platform and resources to support villagers to claim their rights and advocate for regulation of corporate conduct through progressive policies and legislation.
Vedanta settles Zambian villagers pollution claim over Nchanga copper mine Vedanta Resources has agreed to settle all claims from over 2,500 Zambian villagers over pollution around the Nchanga copper mining operation, according to a company statement. “Without admission of liability, Vedanta Resources Limited and Konkola Copper Mines Plc confirm that they have agreed, for the benefit of local communities, the settlement of all claims brought against them by Zambian claimants represented by English law firm Leigh Day,” Vedanta said on Tuesday January 19.
The settlement value was not mentioned.
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Bob Sichinga speaks during a Chapter One Foundation-organised public discussion
FORMER commerce minister Bob Sichinga says Zambia is poised to lose out from the shareholding misunderstandings between Vedanta Resources Limited and government.
And Sichinga has warned that Zambia risks denting its image as an investment destination to the international community if the ongoing wrangles between Konkola Copper Mines’ (KCM’s) provisional liquidation team and Vedanta were not properly handled.
Last week, Vedanta Resources dragged KCM Provisional Liquidator Milingo Lungu to the Lusaka High Court over the move to restructure and reorganise KCM into two separate subsidiary companies.
Commenting on the development, Sichinga observed that President Edgar Lungu’s direct involvement in the wrangles between Vedanta and Milingo’s team would mean Zambia would eventually lose out in terms of tax payers’ money being spent in compensation similar the Lap GreenN fiasco after government w
BT: Will defend claim vigorously
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The claim at the Competition Appeal Tribunal is brought on behalf of representative Justin Le Patourel, a one-time head of market intelligence at telecoms watchdog Ofcom who founded CALL (Collective Action on Land Lines).
Mishcon said that, in 2017, Ofcom found that BT had been overcharging millions of landline customers since 2009 by raising prices while the wholesale costs of providing landlines fell. The result was that BT agreed to reduce its landline prices by £7 a month.