Billionaire Anil Agarwal sweetens offer for Vedanta Ltd shares by 47%
Anil Agarwal, billionaire founder of the Vedanta Group, has pledged his stake in a cash-rich Indian unit to help sweeten terms for a takeover attempt that’s key to his debt-repayment plans.
London-based Vedanta Resources Ltd. will now seek to buy 17.51% of Mumbai-listed Vedanta Ltd. at 235 rupees ($3.24) a share, it said in an exchange filing Tuesday. That’s up from the previous 10% at 160 rupees apiece. Vedanta Resources’s existing 55% holding in Vedanta Ltd. is placed as collateral under conditions of a dollar bond sale this month that will go toward partly funding the open offer.
The revised offer represents a small premium to Tuesday’s 226.5 rupees closing price and a successful transaction will take Agarwal closer to full control of Vedanta Ltd.
