Mining Conglomerate Vedanta Ltd has raised Rs 2,000 crore from country's largest lender State Bank of India through issuance of Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs).
In a BSE filing, the Anil Agarwal-led firm said: "The Company have allotted 20,000, 9.45 per cent secured, rated, non-cumulative, redeemable, NCDs of Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 2,000 crore to State Bank of India (SBI) on August 17, 2015."
The NCDs are long term funds and this issuance will reduce our cost of funds, it said.
The firm's shares today breached the lower circuit and closed at Rs 80.4 apiece on BSE, down by 15.30 per cent, on a day the exchange witnessed a bloodbath with the Sensex plummeting by more than 1,600 points at close -- its biggest fall ever.
Earlier this month, Vedanta, formerly Sesa Sterlite, had said that the issuance of NCDs is part of the overall debt refinancing of the firm to substitute short-term liabilities and/or to retire higher cost debt.
For the quarter ended June 2015, the firm said its gross debt rose Rs 1,778 crore to Rs 79,530 crore due to funding project payments and temporary working capital requirements, adding that debt levels are expected to come down as working capital is repaid in Q2 of 2015-16.
Out of this, the debt in Indian currency is Rs 38,616 crore and the balance Rs 40,914 crore is in US dollars. The gross debt comprises loans of Rs 64,825 crore for the long term and Rs 14,705 crore for short-term working capital.
In May, Vedanta's parent London-based Vedanta Resources had said it is eyeing likely low interest rates in India to refinance its short-term loans up to USD 1.6 billion (about Rs 10,200 crore) with long-term options this fiscal.
The mineral and mining major has loans worth USD 2.5 billion maturing in 2015-16, of which USD 2.1 billion is with the subsidiaries and the remaining USD 0.4 billion of the group is with Vedanta Resources.
