The board of Vedanta Ltd, a global natural resources and mining company, authorised a proposal to raise Rs 2,100 crore by issuing secured, redeemable, and non‐convertible debentures (NCD) on a private placement basis.

The duly authorised Committee of Directors approved the decision at a meeting held on Thursday, April 13, 2023. The NCDs are secured, unrated, unlisted, redeemable, and non-convertible, with a face value of Rs 10,00,000 each. Vedanta disclosed this information in a stock exchange filing, citing the provisions of Regulations 30 and 51 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations.

On March 28, Vedanta’s board declared the fifth interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2023. The company paid Rs 20.50 per equity share or 2,050% of the face value of Rs 1 per share, amounting to Rs 7,621 crore. The interim dividend is the fifth payout in four interim dividends declared earlier in the year. With the fifth dividend, Vedanta’s total outgo will amount to Rs 101.5 per share, making it the highest-ever payout by the company.

However, after the fifth dividend announcement, domestic rating agencies Crisil and India Ratings downgraded Vedanta’s outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative.’ They cited increased cash outflow in the form of dividends towards large maturing debt obligations at its parent company, Vedanta Resources, as the reason.

According to the latest shareholding pattern available on the BSE, the Agarwal family’s Vedanta Resources holds a 69.69% stake in Vedanta, while retail and other investors own 11.4% of the company’s shares. Domestic and foreign institutions have 9.82% and 7.9% stakes in the mining major, respectively, while mutual funds own the remaining 1.19% shares.

Vedanta’s shares closed at Rs 276 on the BSE on Thursday, a rise of 0.15% from the previous close of Rs 275.60. Over the past week, Vedanta’s shares have risen by 2.68%, with its market capitalisation surging to Rs 1,02,483.11 crore. However, the stock fell nearly 1.22% in the past month, 4.12% in the past six months, 12.69% year-to-date, and 34.93% in the past year.

In the October-December quarter, Vedanta’s consolidated profit dropped by 42.2% to Rs 3,092 crore compared to Rs 5,354 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. Vedanta’s revenue for the period was Rs 33,691 crore, down by 0.01% from Rs 33,697 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last year.