Vedanta Ltd. will award a dividend of 68.8 billion rupees ($830 million), the first payout in the fiscal year to March 2024 after five rounds of generous payments last year.
Anil Agarwal’s Indian miner will pay an interim dividend of 18.50 rupees per share, according to an exchange filing dated May 22. The Mumbai-based company’s move follows last year’s record payout of $4.6 billion, which helped its debt-laden parent Vedanta Resources Ltd.
These dividends are key for Agarwal as his holding company has a $500 million bond due at the end of this month and a much larger pile of debt maturing in 2024. The Indian mining conglomerate is also in talks with banks to raise at least $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Vedanta Resources slashed gross debt by $1 billion to $6.8 billion in April, and paid off a further $800 million in loans this month.
Shares of Vedanta Ltd. rose about 2% at close in Mumbai on Monday before the dividend was announced.
(By Swansy Afonso)
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