Vedanta Resources has repaid $100 million to Standard Chartered Bank, resulting in the release of pledged shares of Vedanta Ltd. Vedanta Resources is the majority owner of Mumbai-listed mining and oil & gas company Vedanta Ltd.

“The earlier disclosure was made pursuant to facility agreement dated September 8, 2022 entered into between Twin Star Holding Ltd (as borrower), Vedanta Resources Ltd and Welter Trading Ltd (as original guarantors), and Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Ltd (as original lender)... for the purposes of availing a facility of an aggregate amount of $100,000,000. However, the said facility has been repaid and the encumbrance has been released,” Vedanta told the stock exchanges.

Earlier, the promoters repaid another $150 million to Barclays which also led to the release of pledged shares of Vedanta Ltd.

The markets were concerned over Vedanta’s payment capability particularly after the Centre opposed the sale of the international zinc business to Hindustan Zinc.

Vedanta had proposed the sale of the zinc business to Hindustan Zinc Ltd, in which its domestic arm has 65 per cent ownership for nearly $3 billion.

Last month, Vedanta Resources said it has reduced debt by $2 billion so far in the current fiscal, thereby attaining half of its $4 billion deleveraging target in the first year alone.

The company had set the target of bringing down the debt over a three-year period. It had a net debt of $9.66 billion as of March 31, 2022, according to an investor presentation on its website.

The company had also said that it has pre-paid all of its debt that was due for repayment till March 2023 and that it is confident of meeting its liquidity requirements for the quarter ending June.

Shares of Vedanta on Wednesday ended with marginal gains at Rs 280.25 on the BSE.

Last week, Moody’s downgraded the corporate family rating (CFR) of Vedanta Resources to Caa1 from B3 over increasing refinancing risks in debt maturities.

Moody’s also downgraded the ratings on the senior unsecured bonds issued by VRL and those issued by VRL’s wholly owned subsidiary, Vedanta Resources Finance II Plc, and guaranteed by the parent to Caa2 from Caa1.

Obligations rated Caa are judged to be of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk.