Anil Agarwal offers $1-bn to take Vedanta private

Anil Agarwal offers $1-bn to take Vedanta private

FPJ BureauUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 07:27 AM IST
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New Delhi  : Mining mogul Anil Agarwal’s family trust on Tuesday made a firm $1 billion offer to buy 33.47 per cent non-promoter shares of Vedanta Resources in a deal that values the conglomerate at $3.07 billion.

“Under the terms of the offer, Vedanta shareholders will receive $10.89 per share in cash for each Vedanta share,” the company said in a regulatory filing detailing about the $1 billion offer.

In addition, the shareholders will be entitled to receive the dividend of $0.41 per share in respect of the 12 months ended March 31, 2018.

“Taken together, the offer price and the FY2018 dividend in aggregate represent a total value of $11.30 per share, which on the basis of the announcement exchange rate represents an illustrative premium of approximately 32.4 per cent to the closing price of 647 pence per Vedanta share on June 29, 2018,” it said. Vedanta had on July 2 announced Agarwal’s plans to delist the company. Agarwal’s Volcan Investments, which currently holds 66.53 per cent of Vedanta, made a cash offer for 825 pence a share.

Deal values co $3.07 bn, shareholders to get $10.89 a share in cash

Vedanta, which owns copper, aluminium, iron ore, oil and steel businesses, was the first Indian firm to list on LSE in 2003. It has lately been facing environmental pressure on its operations.

Agarwal, however, has denied any link between the delisting and the protests. There is “no link at all” with the Tuticorin incident, he had said earlier this month. “This is driven by the desire to simplify the corporate structure”. In the stock exchange filing on Tuesday, Agarwal termed  the offer as “a natural progression of our journey to simplify the Vedanta Group’s corporate structure.”

He said given the subsequent growth of underlying businesses and the maturity of the Indian capital markets, a separate London listing is no longer necessary to achieve the Vedanta Group’s strategic objectives.

New Delhi: Vedanta on Tuesday posted barely 2.13 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,533 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 as as closure of its copper smelter in Tamil Nadu offset higher volumes at its aluminium and oil & gas businesses..

The company had posted net profit of Rs 1,501 crore in the April-June period of 2017-18, Vedanta said in a filing to BSE.

Vedanta said the net profit is after taxes, non-controlling interests and share in profit of jointly controlled entities and associates but before exceptional items.

The consolidated total income during the first quarter increased to Rs 22,624 core as against Rs 20,431 crore in the year-ago period. The company’s CEO Kuldip Kaura said, “Vedanta had a good first quarter with revenue of Rs 22,206 crore, up 15 per cent year-on-year and EBITDA of Rs 6,529 crore, 31 per cent higher year-on-year.”

NEW DELHI: The closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper unit in Tamil Nadu has led to rise in import of copper worth $2 billion and export loss of over $1.5 billion, resulting in an overall loss of Rs 20,000 crore to the economy, a top company official on Tuesday said. The statement comes amid National Green Tribunal (NGT) refusing to grant any interim relief to Vedanta, which has challenged Tamil Nadu government’s order to permanently shut down the unit. The state government had in May ordered the pollution control board to seal and “permanently” close the plant, following violent protests over pollution concerns. “Closure of Sterlite Copper has resulted in increased import of copper worth $2 billion and export loss of over $1.5 billion — overall loss of Rs 20,000 crore to the economy,” Sterlite Copper CEO P Ramnath said. He said, before the closure, the company was supplying 250,000 tonne per annum of copper to the domestic market and added that “most of the customers have to import now”. Before the shutdown, the company exported around 150,000-160,000 tonne per annum of copper. The closure has also resulted in steep rise in prices of sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid.

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