Anil Agarwal has denied any plans of selling 5 per cent stake in Vedanta after Bloomberg reported that Agarwal was considering the sale of a minority stake in Vedanta Limited as a move to reduce his business empire's debts.
Reacting to the same report a representative of Vedanta on Thursday told Reuters that it was untrue and baseless.
Report by Bloomberg
On Thursday morning, Bloomberg reported that Agarwal is looking to sell close to 5 per cent stake in the mining major. The report citing sources familiar with the development said that the sale in stake would be a last option for Agarwal and will only be considered if other fundraising options fail to work.
Bloomberg had earlier this month reported that Agarwal's Vedanta Resources Limited that currently owns approximately 70 per cent of Vedanta has been in talks with some banks for a loan worth $ 1 billion. These discussions are currently ongoing and the final decision on the loans is yet to be made.
Dividend by Hindustan Zinc to help Vedanta
Agarwal may see some relief as Vedanta is expected to earn Rs 7,132 crore in dividend payout from Hindustan Zinc that announced its fourth interim dividend for financial year 2023. The company in an exchange filing on Tuesday said it will pay a dividend of Rs 26 per share, this is in addition to the previous Rs 13 per share dividend in January, Rs 15.50 in November and Rs 21 in July last year. In short Hindustan Zinc is offering a total dividend of Rs 75.50 in the Financial year 2023 so far.
This extra amount will help Agarwal who has been considering different ways to pay his debt after the center rejected the company's plan to sell the group's international zinc operations to Hindustan Zinc Limited for $ 3 billion.
Vedanta debt
Vedanta Resources has a total debt of $7.7 billion and the company needs to pay close to $ 2 billion of debt between April and June this year. It also has a bond repayment of $ 400 million in April followed by another $ 500 million this year.
The company had earlier said that it had pre-paid all its debt that was due for repayment till March 2023 and it is confident it will meet the liquidity requirement for the quarter ending in June this year.
Vedanta shares
The shares of Vedanta on Thursday went down over 6 per cent to hit a low of Rs 267.15, though it came back up later it was still trading lower at Rs 272.80.
