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Mumbai: Promoters of mining and natural resources major Vedanta Ltd offloaded 1.76% stake in the company for $1,737 crore on Thursday through a bulk deal on the BSE, data shows.
The stake was sold by Finsider International Co. Ltd, promoter entity, for a weighted average price of $265.14 per share. This translates to a 5% discount on Wednesday’s closing price.
Vedanta shares closed 4% lower on the BSE on Thursday at $268.
While the exchanges do not reveal the buyer in wholesale deals, media reports claimed that it is likely GQG Partners. The latter had acquired major stakes in Adani group companies.
When asked about the identity of the buyer, a Vedanta spokesperson said the company does not comment on market speculation.
The stake sale comes barely a month after Vedanta Resources, Vedanta’s London-based holding company, restructured its outstanding bonds to delay its immediate debt load. The company made a partial down payment and then delayed the maturity of three of its outstanding series of bonds (those due in January 2024, August 2024 and March 2025) by between 29 and 52 months with a principal amount of around 3.2 billion dollars. To make the down payment, the company borrowed $1.25 billion from a group of lenders.
With the debt restructuring, Vedanta Resources has no debt maturities before April 2026, making the purpose of the stake sale unclear. Sources close to the company had already expressed in public and private conversations the reluctance of the promoters to reduce the shareholding.
Questions sent to Vedanta on Thursday evening about the reason for the stake sale remained unanswered.
As of December-end, the promoters held 63.71% stake in the company. It is now expected to have fallen below 62%.
This was the third stake sale by Vedanta promoters in less than a year. Earlier, the promoters of Vedanta Ltd cut their stake in the company by 1.58% in March 2023 and 4.4% in August 2023.
The promoters owned up to 69.69% as of end-December 2022.
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