Shares of Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta fell over 1% to their day’s low of Rs 333 on the BSE on Tuesday after media reports claimed that the Enforcement Directorate conducted search operations across Vedanta Ltd.'s offices in Mumbai and Delhi.
According to a CNBC TV-18 report, the search operations were carried out regarding the royalty payment made by Vedanta Ltd to its parent company Vedanta Resources.
The stock has been in the spotlight through May after it began trading adjusted for the demerger of its Aluminium, Oil & Gas, Power, and Iron & Steel businesses.
Vedanta announced in April that every eligible shareholder would receive one share each of Vedanta Aluminium Metal (VAML), Talwandi Sabo Power (to be renamed Vedanta Power), Malco Energy (to be renamed Vedanta Oil and Gas) and Vedanta Iron and Steel for every share held in the parent company, marking one of the biggest corporate restructurings in India’s metals and mining sector.
Vedanta shares adjusted for the mega demerger at the end of the month, appearing to have crashed more than 63% in one single day. The stock then recorded sharp gains. While the eligible shareholders can continue trading Vedanta stock, the value attributable to these new entities is currently in price-discovery limbo, from the record date until their listings, since investors cannot trade them yet, even as Vedanta’s share price has already adjusted lower post-demerger.
Last week, ICRA upgraded Vedanta’s long-term rating to AA+ (Stable), assigned a stable outlook and reaffirmed the short-term rating. "The rating action factors in ICRA’s expectation of a further strengthening in the credit profile of the Vedanta Group in FY2027, building on the considerable improvement witnessed in FY2026. This has been supported by a sharp increase in base metal prices, which has contributed to a strong financial risk profile for the Group, which reported an OPBDITA of $6.7 billion in FY2026," the ratings agency said.
Post-demerger, ICRA expects the relatively stronger cash-generating entities within the Vedanta group to support the dividend requirements, with the flexibility to fund them from other group entities as well. ICRA also expects that the intra-group support among entities in the conglomerate will continue, if required.
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