Byju's CFO quits, rejoins Anil Agarwal's Vedanta to oversee restructuring

By Anto Antony

Vedanta Ltd. has picked the chief financial officer of edtech titan Byju’s to replace the current finance head, who is said to have quit after a few months in the job, ahead of an ambitious restructuring at Anil Agarwal’s mining conglomerate, according to people familiar with the matter.
 

Ajay Goel will be returning to Vedanta, which he had quit in April, in time to help with splitting the metals firm into six listed companies, they said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. Sonal Shrivastava, who had joined the firm in June, informed Agarwal about her plan to quit last month and a decision on her departure is expected as early as this week, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Spokespersons for Byju’s and Vedanta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments.

Parent Vedanta Resources Ltd. faces about $3 billion of bond repayments in the next two years, and having a professional with previous experience at the group will help Agarwal. The firm has been engaging with bondholders on a potential restructuring of terms for the upcoming maturities. 

At the same time, Goel’s resignation will be a setback for Byju’s, which is yet to file the much delayed audited financial results for the year to March 31, 2022. Shareholders are growing impatient with the slow progress in finalizing accounts at the edtech startup once deemed India’s most valuable.