Vedanta plans $1.5 billion dividend, lifting parent’s bonds

NEW DELHI: Vedanta Ltd. will issue $1.5 billion of dividends to shareholders, triggering a rally in the bonds of its parent that will use the income to pay down debt.
Vedanta will pay a dividend of 31.50 rupees a share to investors, it said in an exchange filing Thursday. That will provide some relief to its parent Vedanta Resources Ltd., which faces a wall of maturities, beginning with a $1 billion note due in July.
Separately, Vedanta Resources announced a tender offer to buy back as much as $500 million of its dollar notes due in July, it said in an exchange notice in Singapore. The company said it will use about half the $1 billion it receives as dividend from the Indian unit.
The parent firm’s dollar bonds rose the most in six weeks Friday, with the notes maturing in July hitting the highest level since October, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.