Anil Agarwal to raise $2.5 billion for Vedanta delisting

BILLIONAIRE Anil Agarwal is in talks with several banks for loans worth $2.5 billion to help finance the delisting offer of Vedanta. On 12 May, Vedanta Resources, the promoter entity of Vedanta Limited, had informed stock exchanges that it will delist the latter.

Vedanta has offered public shareholders, who collectively hold 49 per cent stake in the company, a price of Rs 87.5 per share for rendering their shares in the offer.

"JP Morgan is the lead banker to the deal. They are also talking to many other banks. The business throws up significant amounts of cash through dividends and these will be used to repay the loan," said media reports.

Reports said Vedanta is talking with banks including Barclays, Standard Chartered Bank and Citi for the loans.

Agarwal has a track record of merging and delisting his companies.

Agarwal’s Volcan Investments has in the past taken his London-listed Vedanta Resources private as the entrepreneur sought to simplify the corporate structure of his resources group.

Anil Agarwal is the chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc, a company he founded in 1976. The company started as a cable manufacturer and went on to be listed in the London Stock Exchange in 2003. He, however, took the company private on October, 2019.

Agarwal controls Vedanta through Volcan Investments, a holding vehicle with a 100 per cent stake in the business.

In 2012, he merged mining firms Sterlite and Sesa Goa to form Vedanta. After his buy out of Cairn, Vedanta set in motion the process of delisting the cash-rich Cairn India in 2016 and merge it fully with self.