On November 3rd, 2022, London-based Vedanta Resources, the holding company of India’s Vedanta Limited, discontinued the rating services of Moody’s after the latter lowered the company’s ratings on debt concerns.
Commodity tycoon billionaire Anil Agarwal led Vedanta Limited, India's leading aluminium producer, and diversified to other natural resources. It is the most extensive mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and has mining operations in Australia and Zambia and oil and gas operations in three countries.
According to a statement released on November 3rd, 2022, late evening India time, Vedanta said: “Vedanta Resources Limited hereby announces that it has today given notice to Moody’s Investor Services to discontinue its rating engagement and to withdraw all the outstanding ratings.”
Earlier this week, Vedanta strongly disputed Moody's rating action. On October 31, 2022, Moody's downgraded the corporate family rating of Vedanta Resources to B3 from B2 and the senior unsecured bonds rating to Caa1 from B3.
In its report, Moody cited concerns that Vedanta still needs to secure funding to service its $900 million (INR 7,450 crore) bond maturities due in April and May 2023, contrary to expectations that funding would be secured by the end of October.
Kaustubh Chaubal, a Senior Vice President at Moody's, said, "The proximity of the large maturities' due dates without a refinancing completed well in advance indicates VRL's aggressive liability management."
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