Cost Efficiency Leads to Earnings Beat; but Valuations Rich Hindustan Zinc's (HZL) EBITDA grew strongly by 74% qoq to Rs19.7bn in 2QFY17, topping our estimate of Rs17.5bn, aided by higher realization (up 21% yoy) and lower-than-expected overall cost. However, EBITDA declined by 10% yoy owing to fall in production of zinc (down 29% yoy; up 47% qoq) and lead (down 23% yoy; up 24% qoq) to 150,000 tonne & 31,000 tonne, respectively mainly due to lower output from Rampura Agucha Mine. While mine transition from open cast to underground is progressing well, HZL continues to maintain its guidance of marginally higher mined...