Vedanta looks east, to quit LSE in $1.1 billion share buyback

MUMBAI: Metal maven Anil Agarwal’s Volcan Investments, the main holding company of UKbased Vedanta Resources Plc, on Monday announced plans to acquire 33.5 per cent of the public shareholding and delist the group flagship company from the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The transaction, when completed, will cost Volcan $1.1 billion, or ?7,007 crore.

ET was the first to report on Monday that the London-based natural resources giant was considering plans to delist from LSE.

“This initiative is a natural progression of our journey to simplify the Vedanta Group’s corporate structure,” Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources, said. “The London listing has served us extremely well since that time (2003). However, given the subsequent growth of our underlying businesses and the maturity of the Indian capital markets, together with related feedback from our shareholders and other stakeholders, we have concluded that a separate London listing is no longer necessary to achieve the Vedanta Group’s strategic objectives,” Agarwal added.


Analysts tracking the group applauded the move. Vedanta Resources share price rose 26.4 per cent to 817.48 pence during trading hours but below its buyback price of 856 pence per share.

There was speculation in the market that the move to delist was triggered by the protests against the Vedanta plant in Tuticorin .