Vedanta’s ESL Unit 'Bleeding Cash, Heading Back to Insolvency': Viceroy Research Warns

Investigative financial research firm Viceroy Research has warned that Vedanta Ltd’s steel subsidiary, Electrosteel Steels Ltd (ESL), is on the verge of bankruptcy once again, seven years after Vedanta acquired it out of insolvency. In a report titled 'Vedanta – ESL Was Bankrupt Before, & Will Be Bankrupt Again', Viceroy described ESL as a 'regulatory and financial dead weight' on Vedanta’s balance sheet, bleeding cash, blocking upstreaming to its parent Vedanta Resources Ltd (VRL) and heading back into insolvency. According to the report, ESL has posted negative free cash flow in five of the past seven years, including a loss of Rs356 crore in FY24-25 despite a one-off asset sale. Much of ESL’s capital expenditure has been spent on environmental penalties rather than business growth