Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta signs a 5-yr-loan for $850 million with JPMorgan and Oaktree
3 min read 24 May 2023, 09:14 AM ISTTo tackle its debts, Vedanta signed a $850 million loan with JPMorgan and Oaktree. The tenure of the loan is five years
PremiumIn a bid to tackle its soaring debt burden, Anil Aggarwal led Vedanta group, has raised an $850 million fund with JPMorgan and Oaktree, reported Bloomberg. The conglomerate has raised this fund after signing a five-year loan for about $850 million.
Earlier, the company had tried to sell its zinc assets to Hindustan Zinc Ltd for $3 billion but failed. This month, Vedanta reported an 8 per cent fall in its profit in the April quarter. The falling profit was the result of the declining prices of the metal. Till now, there have been no official statements released by JPMorgan, Oaktree, and Vedanta.
Vedanta shares were 0.43% up at ₹289.65 per share at 9:32 am on BSE. Notably, Vedanta reported a 56.3% annual rise in its net profit to ₹2,634 crore against ₹6,027 crore in the corresponding period last year. The revenue of Vedanta the company fell by 5.4% YoY to ₹37,225 crore from ₹39,342 crore during the same quarter in a previous financial year.
The company's EBITDA decreased 33.4 per cent to ₹8,754 crore against ₹13,153 crore in Q4FY22. The board had approved fourth and fifth interim dividends of ₹12.50 and ₹20.50 per equity share in the quarter under review.
Also read: Vedanta shares gain as board to consider first interim dividend for FY24
The falling price of steel affecting Vedanta's business
It is worth noting that the fall in the quarterly revenue of the metal and mining major due to falling steel price. It revenue share from the mainstay aluminium business reduced to 33% from 39%.
In the past one year, Zinc and aluminum prices have plummeted by more than 40% from the record highs hit in March 2022. The company's total expenses soared by 10.5% to 330.4 billion rupees from a year earlier. With this, its finance costs jumped by 35%, and depreciation and amortization costs surged by 16%.
The company's losses due to windfall tax on oil exports fell to 1.18 billion rupees in the December quarter after the government decided on reducing levies. With a 1.4% of fall in its aluminum sales, the production remained flat.
