The board of Vedanta Ltd on Monday announced an interim dividend of Rs 20.50 per share amounting to Rs 7,621 crore — the fifth such payout declared by the Anil Agarwal-led company for the current fiscal.
The payout is expected to benefit parent Vedanta Resources which is looking to bring down its debt. The promoters hold close to 69.69 per cent in Vedanta, and they will get Rs 5,211 crore from the latest payout.
Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday said in a regulatory filing that its board has approved the “fifth interim dividend of Rs 20.50 per equity share — 2050 per cent on face value of Re 1 per share for the financial year 2022-23 amounting to Rs 7,621 crore’’.
The record date for the purpose of the payment of dividend is April 7.
The markets were expecting the payout after Hindustan Zinc had declared a fourth interim dividend of Rs 26 per share amounting to Rs 10,985.83 crore.
Vedanta holds 64.92 per cent of HZL.
Vedanta Resources has been looking to reduce its debt through the sale of its zinc assets for a cash consideration of $2,981 million to HZL.
However, the Indian government which holds 29.54 per cent stake in Hindustan Zinc has strongly opposed the move.Vedanta Resources had earlier said it has enough means to meet its repayment liabilities in the coming quarters as it looked to soothe investor concerns over its financial position.
It said it is in an advanced stage of finalisation to tie up $1.75 billion through a combination of syndicate loan and bilateral bank facilities.
The company said it had pre-paid all of its debt that was due for repayment till March 2023, deleveraging $2 billion in the past 11 months, and was confident of meeting its liquidity requirements for the quarter ending June 2023.