Shares of Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta tumbled 6.5 per cent to Rs 424.50 on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade after over 2 per cent of company equity changed hands via block deals.
As much as 4.6 per cent equity stake in Vedanta Ltd was sold for Rs 7,485 crore in block deals on June 26, with a promoter entity being the likely seller, reported CNBC TV18 citing unidentified sources.
The stake sale in Vedanta Ltd comes days after group Chairman Anil Agarwal said that the promoters wouldn’t dilute any more equity in the company. In another instance, parent firm Vedanta Resources denied a report to sell shareholding.
“We have (~62 percent) of holding of the company and we are comfortable. Any investment banker comes and gives me some idea, we will work on it. (But) at this point of time, there is nothing on the cards to take our holding down below 61.5 percent,” Vedanta group Chairman Anil Agarwal had said in an interview to CNBC TV18 last week.
Agarwal has been seeking to slash the group’s debt burden. London-listed Vedanta Resources reduced its net debt to $6 billion in FY24 from $9.7 billion in FY22. The company aims to cut it to $3 billion over the next three years. Vedanta Resources has long-term debt maturities of $900 million in FY25 and another $900 million in FY26.
UK-based Vedanta Resources held a 61.95% stake in India-listed Vedanta Ltd as of March 31 through six subsidiaries. Shares of Vedanta Ltd have rallied 76 per cent so far this year to Rs 451 on Tuesday compared with a 7 per cent gain in the Sensex year-to-date.
The group’s Indian assets are held through Vedanta Ltd. In February, Finsider International, part of Vedanta Resources, sold more than 65.5 million Vedanta Ltd shares for Rs 1,700 crore. The shares were sold at Rs 265.14 apiece.
Vedanta Ltd has proposed a vertical split of the India businesses and will list five entities on the domestic stock exchanges. That’s expected to happen by the end of this year. The demerger will create independent pure-play companies in aluminium, power, base metals, oil and gas, and steel and ferrous derivatives, while zinc and other existing businesses will remain under Vedanta Ltd.
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