Mining major Vedanta, a subsidiary of London-headquartered Vedanta Resources (VRL), has convened a board meeting on May 22 to consider the first dividend for FY24.
The record date for the dividend, if declared, has been fixed as May 30, the company said in a stock exchange update late Wednesday. Further details were not provided.
Following the announcement, the firm’s shares rose by 1.74% to Rs 284.20 in intra-day trade. The move came at a time when its parent VRL was seeking to shore up funds to trim debt.
On April 6, the Mumbai-headquartered company had announced an interim dividend of Rs 20.50, increasing its FY23 dividend payout to Rs 101.50 a share.
Prior to this in March, Vedanta had approved its fifth interim dividend of ?20.50 per share or a total of Rs 7,621 crore for FY23. With this, the total outgo by way of dividends for FY23 was at about Rs 37,733 crore.
On April 20, Vedanta pledged a 2.44% stake in its subsidiary Hindustan Zinc (HZL) to raise Rs 1,500 crore. The latest pledge by the Anil Agarwal-helmed company, totalling 103.24 million shares, was as security for a term loan the firm raised. With this, Vedanta has pledged 91.35% of its total 64.92% in HZL. The Indian government holds a 29.54% stake in HZL, which was privatised more than two decades ago, and Vedanta holds a 64.92% stake.
On April 13, Vedanta’s board approved raising of upto ?2,100 crore through issuance of Non-Convertible Debentures through private placements.
