Mumbai: Vedanta Ltd, an Indian multi-national mining company, has planned to sell out its entire steel assets by March 2024, group chairman Anil Agarwal told an electronic channel on Tuesday.
The announcement followed the Vedanta Group‘s decision to go for a restructuring of its businesses, by selling all its stakes in steel and raw steel business. The steel and raw steel business was under review of the company since June this year.
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The announcement to exit from the steel business has been greeted by the investors, which was reflected in the rise of company’s share by as much as 4% on Tuesday. The company shares were trading 4.25% higher at ₹231.95 per share on BSE at 2:30 pm.
According to Vedanta Group officials, the company has mooted restructuring plan, which includes demerger of its diversified business into six separate listed companies. It will take around a year of so for the company to complete the demerger exercise after getting all mandatory clearances on time.
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The proposed merger envisages splitting the company in to different entities, such as Vedanta Aluminium, Vedanta Oil and Gas, Vedanta Power, Vedanta Steel and Ferrous Materials, Vedanta Base Metals and Vedanta Ltd. Accordingly, all stakeholders of the company will get one additional share of each newly listed entities for one share of Vedanta.
Company officials said that the demerger and revamping of the businesses took shape after four years after Vedanta acquired the company. “Now the company looks to focus on its core mining and industrials businesses to pare $11.7 billion in debt on its balance sheet,” said a senior functionary.
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Reports said that Vedanta has approached steel companies such as ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS), Tata Steel, JSW and Jindal Steel and Power Limited, and a select group of financial investors. Top executives like ArcelorMittal CEO Aditya Mittal have also visited the site along with Vedanta Group officials in recent weeks.
