Vedanta seeks to simplify, consolidate business structure

New Delhi: Mining major Vedanta today said its strategy is to “simplify and consolidate” its corporate structure, amid speculations of Cairn India merging with itself.[caption id=“attachment_1993503” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Seeking restructuring. Reuters [/caption] Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta recently hiked stake in its subsidiary Cairn India, oil and gas exploration firm, by nearly 5 percent. “Company’s stated strategy is to simplify and consolidate its corporate structure. Management reviews options to deliver this strategy on an on-going basis,” Vedanta, formerly Sesa Sterlite said in a BSE filing today. Without giving specific details, Vedanta said it would “abide by its obligations to make appropriate disclosures as and when such disclosures are necessitated by decisions taken by the company”. Queries sent to a Vedanta spokesperson on speculations about Cairn India with the company did not elicit any response. Merging Cairn India with itself would provide Vedanta access to the latter’s cash and help reduce the debt burden. At the end of March this year, Vedanta had total liabilities worth over Rs 99,000 crore on a consolidated basis. Last week, the company had acquired 4.98 percent stake in Cairn India for $315 million from a wholly-owned subsidiary Twinstar Mauritius Holdings (TSMHL). The funds received by TSMHL will be used to service existing debt obligations at TSMHL, Vedanta had said. Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta India, which changed the name from Sesa Sterlite, is a promoter in Cairn India. TSMHL had 39.41 percent stake in Cairn India at March-end, while Vedanta’s stake was 18.73 percent. Following the share transfer, Vedanta will continue to hold 59.9 percent in Cairn India of which 25.5 percent will be held directly and 34.4 percent held indirectly through TSMHL. Agarwal in January had said the company is mulling merging cash-cows Cairn India and Hindustan Zinc into his flagship Vedanta Group firm to create a global natural resources giant to rival Rio Tinto or BHP Billiton. He had said consultants have been appointed to explore if it would make sense to merge the two firms into Vedanta and will look at if it made sense to “keep oil and gas and energy companies separate or merge Hindustan Zinc, merge Cairn, so that we can have a company like BHP. That can be one model. It all depends on shareholders…How value can be created, how smooth. We are open for merger if the recommendation comes,” he had said. The shares of the company were trading at Rs 183.10 apiece on BSE, up 3.42 percent from previous close at 1420 hours. PTI