Vedanta Resources (VRL), the diversified mining company headquartered in London, is giving final touches to a plan to raise up to $2.5 billion (about Rs 20,800 crore) as debt repayment deadlines near. The company owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal plans to do this by a combination of instruments, including issuing preference shares in the holding company to a slew of offshore investors from West Asia, and taking on another loan to refinance older debt at a higher interest rate. VRL, which is the group's holding company, is also looking to sell part of its 63.71 per cent stake in the Indian listed subsidiary Vedanta Ltd to meet funding requirements, said a banker close to the development.
There are no guesses on how many times the group of ministers will meet before any clarity emerges on the $9.6-billion deal.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal's mining group Vedanta on Monday said it has withdrawn cases in the Delhi high court as well as before an international arbitration tribunal to settle a Rs 20,495 crore retrospective tax dispute with the government. Post slapping of a Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on UK's Cairn Energy Plc for alleged capital gains made on a 2016 internal reorganisation prior to the listing of its India business, the Income Tax Department had sought Rs 20,495 crore in taxes (including penalty) from Cairn India for failing to deduct tax on capital gains made by its British parent. Cairn India was in 2011 bought by Agarwal's group and subsequently, the firm was merged with Vedanta Ltd.
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Vedanta has acquired 58.5 per cent in Cairn India for a total consideration of $8.67 billion, the third-largest acquisition ever by an Indian enterprise globally.
An increased brand fee paid by India-listed Vedanta, apart from record dividend, has helped Vedanta Resources (VRL) - the London-based holding company of Vedanta Group - to repay part of its debt. Vedanta paid a brand fee of Rs 2,632 crore ($325 million) for 2022-23 (FY23), according to Nomura report. This was after the Anil Agarwal-owned holding company raised the brand fee to 2 per cent of the turnover for its Indian businesses in 2021.
Zero-debt Cairn India has $2.85 billion cash reserve.
A day after the government referred its $9.6 billion deal to a panel of ministers; UK's Cairn Energy Plc on Thursday said it has extended the deadline for completion of the sale of a majority stake in its Indian unit to Vedanta Resources by over a month to May 20.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices on a public interest suit challenging the role of the central government and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in the deal between Cairn India and Vedanta Resources.
The Home Ministry, while giving the security no-objection certificate (NOC), highlighted eight areas of concern, including 64 legal proceedings against Vedanta and its subsidiaries in various courts, sources privy to the development said.
Leading mining group Vedanta Resources has been stripped of international safety awards amid claims that it won the prize without declaring that a chimney collapse at one of its sites had killed at least 40 workers last year, according to a media report.
Vedanta Resources has delayed its offer to buy a further 20% stake in iron-ore mining company Sesa Goa.
More than three months after announcing the sale of its up to 51 per cent stake in the Indian unit to Vedanta, Cairn Energy Plc on November 23 last year had made a conditional application to seek government's nod but refused to accept partner ONGC's rights.
Debt management is going to be a worry for the Vedanta group until FY25 at least. However, the restructuring of business divisions in Vedanta India could lead to an unlocking of values. The group structure is fairly complex. Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources (VRL), which is London-listed, has a lot of debt on the balance sheet. It will have to repay $1 billion in secured bonds by January 2024 and at least another $300 million in calendar 2024.
VAL, a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources, has about 550 employees. It closed down the 1-million-tonne per year refinery exactly two weeks ago due to a shortage of bauxite, the key raw material used to produce alumina.
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The government of Odisha is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision by the central government in New Delhi to halt the bauxite mining project being undertaken by Vedanta Resources in the Niyamgiri area of the state.
The brand image, however, may not tarish further as it will have already taken the beating due to consistent injury
Billionaire Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta Resources has decided not to pursue a proposal to build a Rs 20,000-crore (Rs 200 billion) five-million-tonne steel project in Orissa in view of its strategy to focus on non-ferrous and iron ore businesses, two highly-placed sources in the company said on Tuesday.
Government wants Cairn India to agree to pay royalty and cess on its all important Rajasthan block.
Pressure is mounting on the Church of England, a stakeholder in the British mining giant Vedanta to "use its power" to refrain it from exploiting bauxite from mountains of Orrisa, considered sacred by the local tribals.
Whereas, the group is offering Cairn India's parent Cairn Energy Rs 405 a share, which includes a fee for not competing with it in India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan for the next three years.
Mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources has completed the purchase of a 10 per cent stake in Cairn India from Cairn Energy, taking its total stake in the company to 28.5 per cent.
According to a senior Vedanta executive, the supply of bauxite from Gujarat should start this week. The Orissa alumina project needs about 3 million tonnes of bauxite to run at full capacity.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp on Monday said UK's Cairn Energy Plc cannot sell a majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources without its consent.
In a setback to the Cairn-Vedanta deal, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium has reaffirmed that the government can impose preconditions like equitable sharing of royalty in the all-important Rajasthan block for clearing Vedanta Resources' takeover of Cairn India.
ONGC sought opinion from the second highest law officer of the country after its partner Cairn Energy Plc stated that the UK firm's sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources will not trigger pre-emption rights of the state- owned firm, a top oil ministry official said.
Apparently making amends to past slip-ups, UK's Cairn Energy on Thursday courted the government and ONGC to clear-up "misgivings" on sale of majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
Vedanta Resources, the UK-listed mining group, is planning to invest $20bn in India in the next four years to expand its metals, mining and electricity generation operations in the country.
Government is yet to approve Cairn's deal to sell stake in Cairn India to Vedanta.
The UK-based Cairn Energy on Tuesday said it will seek government's "endorsement" and necessary consent for selling its majority stake in Cairn India to London-listed Vedanta Resources for $8.48 billion.
The Petroleum Ministry may have watered down its preconditions for approving mining group Vedanta Resources' acquisition of Cairn India, but the $9.6 billion deal will still hinges on no-objection from partner ONGC.
The shareholders will also get one redeemable preference share in Vedanta Ltd
Campaigners from Hamburg-based (Germany) think-tank World Future Council, along with British charity ActionAid, protested against the Church of England and Middlesbrough Borough Council on Monday for investing their pension funds in UK-based metals and mining company Vedanta Resources Plc (with an $8-billion group turnover), whose reputation for trampling human rights and alleged unclean mining practices has been questioned before.
With Cairn Energy Plc voluntarily offering to meet government conditions, the Oil Ministry may find it difficult to nix its deal to sell majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources.
