London-headquartered Vedanta Resources (VRL) will make an upfront payment of $779 million in cash on February 7 to bondholders to redeem a portion of the bonds and extend their maturities.
Earlier this month, VRL, the parent company of Indian mining major Vedanta, received bondholders’ approvals to extend the maturity period of four series of bonds worth $3.2 billion due in the next three years. The bonds are listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading (SGX-ST).
The company will be paying $779 million in upfront cash. It will also pay a consent fee of $68 million to the bondholders who had agreed to the restructuring, it said in a regulatory update on Wednesday.
On December 14, VRL had secured a $1.25 billion new funding to repay part of its debt, even as it sought investors’ approval to extend the maturity date of its $3.15 billion dollar bonds.
The company, helmed by billionaire Anil Agarwal, also offered to pay $779 million by early February for the three bonds – due in January 2024, August 2024 and March 2025. It had also sought an extension of their maturity periods as much as by four years through a consent solicitation exercise.
Vedanta Resources Investments and Vedanta Holdings Mauritius II, wholly-owned subsidiaries of VRL, were the borrowers. VRL will exchange about half of the January 2024 bonds with new bonds maturing in January 2027, and most of the August 2024 and March 2025 bonds with new ones maturing in December 2028.
VRL had a debt maturity of $1 billion in 13.875% bonds due in January 2024, which the company wants to refinance by December 23, and another $1 billion due in August 2024. Furthermore, it has $3.1 billion debt obligation in FY25.