Vedanta AGM: Company Plans Capex Of $3 Billion Over Next Two Years, Says Anil Agarwal

Anil Agarwal said the year FY22 has been the best year for Vedanta where the firm clocked record revenue of Rs 131,192 crore and Ebitda of Rs 45,319 crore, which was up 66 per cent year-on-year

Vedanta's Chairman Anil Agarwal on Wednesday said the company aims to become a $100 billion company by 2030. The chairman in his speech at the company's 57th annual general meeting (AGM) said the company has planned a capex of around $3 billion over the next two years for growth and vertical integration.

During his speech, Agarwal said the year FY22 has been the best year for Vedanta where the firm clocked record revenue of Rs 131,192 crore and Ebitda of Rs 45,319 crore, which was up 66 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and contributed more than Rs 54,000 crore to the government exchequer.

“Our strong cash flows put the company in a great position for growth. We have put in place a robust capital allocation strategy that aims at deleveraging our balance sheet,” he said.

According to the Vedanta release, Agarwal on company’s growth plans said that the company is looking at building capacities across businesses with planned new investments. For FY23, we have planned around $2 billion capex investment in zinc, oil & gas and aluminium. I am excited about our acquisition of Nicomet which makes us the sole producer of Nickel in India, a metal which is in high demand for electric vehicles and batteries.

“We are also making a foray into the strategic area of manufacturing semiconductor fab and display fab. Not only are semiconductors in short supply globally, but India is also 100 per cent import dependent. The domestic consumption of semiconductors is expected to cross $80 billion by 2026 and may touch $110 billion by 2030,” the chairman mentioned.

Vedanta has already signed an MoU with Foxconn, one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, to set up an integrated semiconductor manufacturing facility in India, Anil Agarwal pointed out.

On ESG, sustainability and technology, Vedanta is committed to delivering sustainable and responsible growth. “We have only one planet to call home. We aim to be the ESG leader in the natural resources sector and have repurposed our mission statement to Transforming for Good'. We have pledged $5 billion to reduce carbon emissions in operations to net zero by 2050 or sooner. We have also set targets to become water positive by 2030 and use 2.5 GW of Renewable Energy in our operations by 2030,” Agarwal added.