Vedanta shares drop over 3% on SEBI order to pay ₹78 crore to Cairn UK
Upstox
2 min read • Updated: March 13, 2024, 7:13 PM
Summary
Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday informed bourses that the market regulator Sebi has directed the company to pay a total of ₹77.62 crore to UK-based Cairn for a delay in the payment of dividends. The company is required to pay the amount within 45 days.
Shares of mining to metal giant Vedanta Ltd dropped more than 3% on Wednesday after the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) directed the company to pay ₹78 crore to Cairn UK Holdings while barring company board members from the capital market.
Vedanta shares opened lower and slid further to hit a low of ₹260.65 apiece on the NSE in morning deals. Around 43.20 lakh shares of billionaire Anil Agrawal-promoted company changed hands on the bourse.
Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday informed bourses that the market regulator Sebi has directed the company to pay a total of ₹77.62 crore to UK-based Cairn for a delay in the payment of dividends. The company is required to pay the amount within 45 days.
The capital market watchdog also barred the entire board of Vedanta, including chairman and managing director Navin Agarwal, Anil Agarwal's daughter Priya, CEO Thomas Albanese and CFO Arun Kumar from the capital markets for two months.
Vedanta in the filing stated that there would be no financial and material impact of the order. The company also said that it would appropriate legal steps.
The SEBI order is related to Vedanta stopping dividend payments to Cairn Energy following its dispute with the Indian government over a ₹10,247 crore tax demand.
Cairn Energy held a stake in Cairn India which was acquired by Vedanta and later merged with the mining major.
Cairn Energy had approached SEBI after Vedanta withheld dividend payments.
The market regulator in the order held that Vedanta has violated the law by stopping dividend payments to the UK firm for the period from January 2014 to June 2017.
Vedanta shares have dropped more than 3% in 2024. The metal and mining company reported an 18% decline in net profit to ₹2,013 crore for the third quarter of 2023-24 against ₹2,464 crore in the same quarter of the last year. The company reported a 3.8% growth in revenue to ₹34,968 crore in the third quarter.
Vedanta shares were trading 3.29% lower at ₹261.4 apiece on NSE at 11.15 am.