New Delhi: In an effort to address its significant debt burden, the Vedanta group, led by Anil Agarwal, has successfully raised an $850 million fund in collaboration with JPMorgan and Oaktree, as reported by Bloomberg. This fund was secured subsequent to the conglomerate’s acquisition of a five-year loan totaling approximately $850 million.
Previously, Vedanta had attempted to sell its zinc assets to Hindustan Zinc Ltd for $3 billion; however, this endeavor proved unsuccessful. The company recently disclosed an 8% decline in its profit during the April quarter, primarily attributed to the downward trajectory of metal prices. As of now, no official statements have been released by JPMorgan, Oaktree, or Vedanta regarding this matter.
At 9:32 am on the BSE, Vedanta shares exhibited a 0.43% increase, amounting to ₹289.65 per share. Notably, Vedanta experienced a 56.3% annual surge in its net profit, amounting to ₹2,634 crores, compared to ₹6,027 crores in the corresponding period of the previous year. Conversely, the company’s revenue witnessed a 5.4% year-on-year decrease, falling from ₹39,342 crores to ₹37,225 crore during the same quarter in the preceding fiscal year.
Vedanta’s EBITDA also declined by 33.4% to ₹8,754 crore, as opposed to ₹13,153 crore in Q4FY22. Within the quarter under review, the board approved fourth and fifth interim dividends of ₹12.50 and ₹20.50 per equity share, respectively.
Impacted by the declining steel prices, Vedanta’s business has been influenced by the decrease in quarterly revenue for the metal and mining major. The company’s revenue share from the primary aluminium business dropped from 39% to 33%.
Over the past year, zinc and aluminium prices have experienced a significant decline of over 40% from the record highs reached in March 2022. Concurrently, Vedanta’s total expenses rose by 10.5% to 330.4 billion rupees compared to the previous year. Finance costs surged by 35%, and depreciation and amortization costs increased by 16%.
Moreover, the company’s losses resulting from windfall taxes on oil exports diminished to 1.18 billion rupees in the December quarter after the government decided to reduce levies. Although there was a 1.4% decline in aluminum sales, the production levels remained unchanged.
