Vedanta repays Standard Chartered loan Vedanta repays Standard Chartered loan Vedanta repays Standard Chartered loan Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources has said that it has repaid loans worth $800 million to Standard Chartered. The company said that it repaid three loan facilities from Standard Chartered Bank in London and Hong Kong.
It said that the repayments released the encumbrances created on the shares of its unit Vedanta Limited. This move could assuage concerns about its liquidity, as per a report in Bloomberg.
This comes after the London-based company trimmed its gross debt by $1 billion last month. It paid all its maturing loans and bonds due in April 2023, as per the company. Following the repayment last month, Vedanta’s gross debt stood at $6.8 billion, down from $7.8 billion at the end of March.
The company had said last month that it completed 75 per cent of its debt reduction commitment.
S&P Global Ratings had said in February that the company could meet its obligations until September. Liquidity beyond that would depend on critical fundraising and proposed sale of international zinc assets by Vedanta Ltd to Hindustan Zinc.
However, according to recent reports, Hindustan Zinc’s proposal to buy zinc assets from Vedanta for $2.98 billion in cash has closed as the company did not get shareholders’ approval within the stipulated time limit.
It was earlier reported that Hindustan Zinc may not pursue the plan of buying Vedanta Resources’ global zinc business as the government was not keen on the sale.