Vedanta Resources trims Bond buyback to $227.40 mn

Metals and mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources has cut down its Bonds repurchase offer to USD 227.40 million out of its outstanding USD 1.13 billion convertible Bonds due in July this year.
Last week, the firm led by NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal announced its plans to repurchase in cash Bonds worth USD 500 million (about Rs 3,300 crore).
The offer by the London Stock Exchange-listed company commenced on January 11 and closed on January 18.
"The maximum acceptance amount of the outstanding Bonds that the Offerer (Vedanta Resources) might purchase has been decreased from USD 500,000,000 to USD 227,400,000," Vedanta said in a regulatory filing.

The firm with business ranging from metals to oil said the purchase price is "USD 91,000 per USD 100,000 in principal amount of the Bonds."
After the repurchase is finalised, the outstanding principal amount will be about USD 907 million. Settlement of the offer is scheduled for today.

On the firm's USD 500 million Bond repurchase, Moody's Investor Service had said the tender offer on convertible Bonds maturing in July 2016 is unlikely to be treated as a "distressed exchange".
Its Vice-President and Senior Analyst Kaustubh Chaubal had said he sees the contemplated deal as "an opportunistic buyback" since the issue of default avoidance is currently unclear, pending emergence of clarity on the purchase price.

"However, a distressed exchange could materialise if the note-holder losses exceed current expectations, estimated based on current market prices," he said.
Vedanta Resources has not indicated any further buybacks, Chaubal said, adding that "additional discounted note repurchases may be treated as a distressed exchange when viewed in combination with the current proposed transaction."
The offer impacts only around 3 per cent of Vedanta Resources' total outstanding debt, it said.
"The tender offer will be funded from the term loan raised at Vedanta Resources Plc and the funds received through the part repayment of an inter-company loan by Vedanta Ltd," it had said.

Sterlite Technologies, one of Volcan's investments,
already has optical fibre manufacturing unit in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
"Upon completion, the LCD project will provide direct and indirect employment to over 30,000 people, and contribute 7-10 per cent to Maharashtra's Industrial Gross Domestic Product," he added.
While demand for electronic products has been rising in the country, the government's push for local manufacturing has also increased.
The total import of electronics goods during 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 (estimated) as per figures of Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) were Rs 1.79 lakh crore, Rs 1.95 lakh crore and Rs 2.25 lakh crore, respectively.

On iron ore, the company said, at Goa production was 2.3
million tonnes (MT) and sales were 2.7 MT during the quarter. In Karnataka, the production was 0.4 MT and sales were 1 MT. Sales were higher than production in both Goa and Karnataka due to sales from opening inventory.
It said during Q3 FY2017, production of pig iron was 5 per cent higher y-o-y at 1,54,000 tonnes due to higher plant availability post debottlenecking.
Iron ore revenue for the quarter, it said was at USD 209 million, significantly higher compared to Q2, primarily due to the ramp up at Goa in Q3 post monsoon and higher iron ore prices. Price realisation at Goa in Q3 FY2017 was USD 40.7 per tonne compared to USD 32.5 per tonne in Q2 FY2017.

About Copper India, the company said the Tuticorin smelter produced 102,000 tonnes of cathodes during Q3 FY2017, up 15 per cent y-oy. During Q3 FY2016, volumes had been lower on account of flooding in the state and unplanned shutdowns.
Copper Zambia it said during Q3, mined metal production was 21,000 tonnes, 33 per cent lower y-o-y, due to lower production from Nchanga underground which was placed on managed care and maintenance in Q3 FY2016, lower trackless equipment availability at Konkola mine, throughput constraints at the mills and lower feed from reclaimed tails at Tailings Leach Plant.
"During Q3, we commenced trial mining at the Nchanga underground mine and initial results for recovery and mining productivity are promising," it said adding, the plan is to ramp-up the annual ore production to a rate in excess of 2 million tonnes.

About aluminium it said the first line of the 1.25 mtpa Jharsuguda-II smelter was impacted by a transformer failure incident in mid- January. Rectification work is in process and 80 pots of the 336 pots are currently operational.
The first line is expected to be ramped up by Q1 FY2018 post rectification, it said adding, the second line is fully ramped up and is expected to be capitalised in Q4 FY2017. The ramp up of the third line of the smelter has commenced in end December 2016, with 42 pots operational and is expected to be fully ramped up by Q2 FY2018.

The rolled product facility at BALCO, which was temporarily shut-down last year, successfully re-commenced its operations in Q2 FY2017 following optimisation of its cost structure, and produced 6,100 tonnes during the quarter.
The two streams of the Lanjigarh refinery operated during the quarter and produced 3,28,000 tonnes in Q3 FY2017, 12 per cent higher than Q2 FY2017.
On power front it said sales were higher y-o-y due to the commissioning of additional power units at TSPL and BALCO over the last one year. Power sales from TSPL increased with all three units being operational.
In Q3 FY2017, the three units operated at an availability of 77 per cent. "The Power Purchase Agreement with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) compensates us based on the availability of the plant," Vedanta said.