Billionaire Agarwal Continues Deal Spree With Vedanta Buyout – by Mark Burton, Jack Farchy and Swansy Afonso (Bloomberg News – July 2, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Billionaire Anil Agarwal added to a string of commodities deals with plans to buy out minority investors in Vedanta Resources Plc, the resources group that he’s seeking to transform into one of the world’s largest.

Agarwal’s Volcan Investments Ltd. will offer 825 pence a share for the 33.5 percent of Vedanta it doesn’t already own and plans to cancel its London listing. Vedanta surged on the news, which caps a tumultuous few months for the company that saw its shares drop last week to the lowest in a year.

Agarwal has been one of the mining sector’s most dynamic dealmakers in recent years. He became the largest shareholder in Anglo American Plc last year, triggering speculation that he might drive a wave of consolidation in the industry.

Sprawling Structure

He has made a series of moves to simplify Vedanta’s sprawling corporate structure, including a merger with Cairn India Ltd. last year as he seeks to transform the group into a resources giant to challenge companies like Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Ltd.

Vedanta “can be the second- or third-largest resource company in the world,” Agarwal said in an interview earlier this year. Vedanta rose as much as 28 percent in London and traded at 819.4 pence a share at 12:02 p.m.

For the rest of this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-02/billionaire-agarwal-agrees-to-buy-the-rest-of-vedanta-resources