Vedanta Refutes Media Report On Talks Of Stake Sale
According to company's spokesperson, "any talk of stake sale in Vedanta Ltd is untrue and baseless."
Vedanta Ltd., on Thursday, termed any talks of stake sales in an oil-to-metals conglomerate as "untrue and baseless."
This comes after a news report cited that mining mogul Anil Agarwal is contemplating a potential stake sale in Vedanta as a last-resort option and is examining the possibility of selling less than 5% of the company.
According to the company's spokesperson, "any talk of a stake sale in Vedanta Ltd. is untrue and baseless."
The media report said that the stake sale in Vedanta is a last resort for Agarwal and will only be considered if other fundraising options fail.
Vedanta Resources, a majority shareholder of Vedanta Ltd., has been looking to reduce its debt through the sale of its zinc assets to Hindustan Zinc Ltd. for a cash consideration of $2,981 million (Rs 24,511.27 crore). However, the government, which holds a 29.54% stake in Hindustan Zinc, has sternly opposed this move.
Vedanta holds 64.92% of the equity share capital of HZL. Vedanta Resources had earlier said that it has enough means to meet its debt repayment liabilities in the coming quarters as it looked to assuage investor concerns about its financial position.
In a statement, the firm, which is the majority owner of Mumbai-listed mining and oil and gas company Vedanta Ltd, said it is in the advanced stage of finalisation to tie up $1.75 billion (Rs 14,389 crore) through a combination of syndicate loan and bilateral bank facilities.
Vedanta Resources said it has pre-paid all of its debt that was due for repayment till March 2023, deleveraging by $2 billion (Rs 16,445 crore) in the past 11 months.
Further, it is confident of meeting its liquidity requirements for the quarter ending June 2023.
Vedanta Resources recently said that it has fully repaid $250 million (Rs 2055.62 crore) in loans it had taken from Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
