Vedanta Ltd, the Anil Agarwal-led company, has pledged nearly all of its holdings in Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) as collateral for loans.

Vedanta Ltd held a 64.92 per cent stake, translating into 274.3 crore shares in HZL during the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Of this, the number of shares that were pledged stood at 240.2 crore shares or 87.59 per cent.

The latest data from the exchanges showed that Vedanta has now created a pledge of 13.94 crore shares or 3.3 per cent of the total equity of HZL on May 22 in favour of Axis Trustee Services Ltd.

On April 28, it pledged 1.05 crore shares or 1.91 per cent shares to Axis Trustee Services and before that on April 17, 10.3 crore shares or 2.44 per cent of holding were pledged to the same entity.

Shares of Hindustan Zinc on Thursday ended at Rs 305.10 on the BSE, a drop of 0.51 per cent or Rs 1.55 over the previous close, while Vedanta settled 1.49 per cent higher at Rs 295.80.

HZL had reported an 11.78 per cent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,583 crore for the fourth quarter of 2022-23 following higher expenses.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 2,928 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

The quarter saw its total income also declining to Rs 8,863 crore from Rs 9,074 crore in the year-ago period, while expenses came in higher at Rs 5,358 crore against Rs 4,717 crore a year ago.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the Vedanta group has raised $850 million from JP Morgan and Oaktree.

Chip plans

Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductors Limited, a JV between Taiwanese electronics major Foxconn and Vedanta Group, on Thursday, said that it has appointed Mike Young as senior vice-president, of project management office and manufacturing operations.