Vedanta Ltd. Funding: Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta raises about $850 million via JPMorgan, Oaktree loan

By Saikat Das and Baiju Kalesh

Billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group has signed a five-year loan for roughly $850 million with JPMorgan and Oaktree, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the matter is a matter of privacy.

The move came as Agarwal’s Indian mining company Vedanta Ltd. plans to pay an interim dividend of 18.50 rupees per share, according to a stock exchange filing. It would be the first payment in the fiscal year to March 2024. The Mumbai-based company’s move follows last year’s record $4.6 billion payments, which helped indebted parent company Vedanta Resources Limited.

Vedanta Resources relies heavily on funds from its units to reduce its debt burden after failing to generate $3 billion through the sale of its zinc mining unit to Hindustan Zinc Ltd. on low-rated borrowers.

Vedanta Resources cut total debt by $1 billion to $6.8 billion in April, and repaid another $800 million in loans this month.

But weak metals prices and higher costs have hampered Vedanta Ltd.’s latest quarterly earnings. , which may limit the scope of further profits.