Vedanta Resources has raised $1.1 billion through a new dual tranche issuance in international debt capital markets, the company said in a Singapore exchange filing.
As per the exchange filing, the bond issuance consists of a $550mn tranche of 5.5 years tenor at a 9.475% interest rate and a $550mn tranche of 8.25 years tenor at a 9.850% interest rate. The company said both tranches garnered strong investor demand with the bonds receiving final orders of $3.4 bn from over 135 accounts, representing an oversubscription of 3.1x. The net proceeds will be used to prepay VRL’s outstanding bonds and pay any related transaction costs.
The final bond allocation included 61% from Asia, 30% from EMEA, and 9% from the US for the 5.5-Year Tranche and 54% from Asia, 30% from EMEA, and 16% from the US for the 8.25-Year Tranche.
Ajay Goel, Chief Financial Officer said “The latest transaction marks the complete refinancing of Vedanta’s restructured bonds. The strong interest in the series of transactions reflects significant investor confidence in the several strategic steps that Vedanta has taken over the last several quarters in terms of delivering record production, cost rationalization, and deleveraging.”
VRL has refinanced $3.1bn in US dollar bonds since September 2024 through four successive international bond transactions. The total quantum of USD bonds raised by Vedanta marks the largest amount raised by an Indian issuer since 2022. The issuance marks an important step for VRL which has reduced its debt by $4.6 billion over the past 3 years, bringing it to its lowest level in a decade.
Two major agencies, Moody’s and S&P Global, upgraded VRL’s and its instruments’ ratings citing recent developments. On January 13, Moody’s said it had upgraded VRL’s corporate family rating to B1 from B2 and that on the senior unsecured bonds guaranteed by VRL to B2 from B3, a one-notch upgrade while maintaining a stable outlook. Moody’s has assigned a B2 rating to VRL’s proposed senior unsecured bond issuance.
S&P Global too assigned a preliminary rating of ‘B’ on VRL’s senior unsecured notes on January 13. This is one notch upgrade from the current one. It has placed the rating on credit watch positive.