Vedanta calls media report on merger with UK parent speculative, misleading

NEW DELHI: Shares of Vedanta were trading marginally lower in Thursday's trade after the metals & mining company denied reports of having discussions with prospective advisors on the idea of merging the parent company Vedanta Resources with itself.

In a BSE filing, the company said it strongly denies such reports as speculative and misleading to investors, adding that no such proposal is under consideration, and that it categorically denies any such rumours.

Earlier, a media report suggested that billionaire Anil Agarwal was considering a potential merger of his commodity empire’s indebted holding company with cash-rich listed unit Vedanta.


The report quoting "people familiar with the matter" said the tycoon has held preliminary discussions about the idea of combining his closely-held Vedanta Resources with Mumbai-traded Vedanta.

The potential deal, the report said, follows a global commodities boom that’s fueled a rally in Vedanta shares and almost doubled its market capitalisation in the past year to about $17 billion.

Deliberations are still at an early stage, and there’s no certainty Agarwal will decide to pursue a transaction, the media report suggested.

Following the development, the stock was trading 0.23 per cent lower at Rs 342.45 on BSE.