Mumbai/London — Vedanta Resources surged by a record after billionaire shareholder Anil Agarwal said he would offer to buy out minority investors as part of efforts to streamline the Indian commodities group’s structure.
Agarwal, whose Volcan Investments already owns 66.5% of Vedanta, intends to cancel the company’s London listing as it no longer needs to rely on the access to UK capital, it said on Monday. The billionaire, who is also mining giant Anglo American’s biggest shareholder, has made a series of moves to consolidate Vedanta’s holdings, including a merger with Cairn India in 2017.
The offer, which values Vedanta Resources at £2.33bn, follows a tumultuous few months for the commodities group. Its shares plunged in May as Vedanta, in which the London-listed company owns just more than 50%, was forced to shut a copper smelter in southern India following deadly protests. Earlier this year, a court ordered a halt to iron ore mining in Goa on environmental concerns.
Vedanta will recommend a cash offer from Volcan of 825p a share, the company said on Monday. The offer is a premium of 14% to Vedanta’s three-month volume weighted average price, it said. Shareholders will be entitled to a previously announced dividend of $0.41 a Vedanta share.
Vedanta Resources jumped as much as 28% to 828.8p on Monday, the biggest gain since its listing in 2003. The stock traded at 821.8p at 9.09 am in London.
While the offer is a 28% premium to Friday’s closing price, Vedanta’s shares were trading above 850p before the drop in May.
"It’s not full value," said Tim Huff, director of equity research at Canaccord Genuity. "But it’s a relatively good outcome."
Bloomberg
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