Vedanta chairperson Anil Agarwal
Photo by: Donna Slater
BENGALURU - India's Vedanta said on Friday it plans to spin off and list six of its businesses as the metals-to-oils conglomerate seeks to fuel their growth.
The six units being planned to be listed are Vedanta Aluminium, Vedanta Oil & Gas, Vedanta Power, Vedanta Steel and Ferrous Materials, Vedanta Base Metals and Vedanta Limited.
The demerger plans, aimed at driving better valuations, come as Vedanta Resources, the UK-based parent of the company, struggles to raise funds due to rating downgrades and concerns over meeting its debt obligations.
"By demerging our business units, we believe that will unlock value and potential for faster growth in each vertical," chairman Anil Agarwal said in a statement.
For each share of Vedanta, the stockholders will receive one additional share of each of the five companies that will be listed.
The entire restructuring process is expected to be completed by financial year 2025, subject to approvals. Filing with stock exchanges for approval from the country's markets regulator is expected during October 2023, Vedanta said.
Early in the day, Vedanta's unit Hindustan Zinc said it plans to create separate entities for its zinc, lead, silver and recycling businesses to unlock "potential value" and will appoint external advisors to review its corporate structure.
This year, Agarwal had sought to trim down the group's debt by getting Hindustan Zinc, a unit of Vedanta, to buy some of the parent group's zinc assets in a $2.98 billion deal.
However, the Indian government, which owns nearly 30% stake in Hindustan Zinc, opposed the move.