Vedanta cuts value of bond buyback programme to US$227.4mn

Bonds that had been tendered at an offer price at or below the set purchase price (US$91) had been accepted in full, Vedanta said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Vedanta Resources has cut the value of its bond repurchase programme to US$227.4 million from the US$500-million figure it had announced last week, reports a business daily.

The buy-back which began on 11th January ended on 18th January. It is set to be settled on Wednesday.

The repurchase was done via a Dutch auction.

The offer accounted for around three per cent of the company’s total outstanding debt.

Bonds that had been tendered at an offer price at or below the set purchase price (US$91) had been accepted in full, Vedanta said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

“While Vedanta Resources has not stated any intention on further buybacks, additional discounted note repurchases may be treated as distressed exchange when viewed in combination with the current proposed transaction,” senior Moody’s analyst Kaustubh Chubai wrote in an investor note.

In November last year, Moody’s downgraded Vedanta Resource’s corporate family rating to BA2 from Ba1, and its senior unsecured ratings to B1 from Ba3, with a negative outlook for both.