Mining giant merges Indian units

NEW DELHI - Agence France-Presse

London-listed mining heavyweight Vedanta announced on Feb. 25 it was combining its two main Indian subsidiaries into a metals giant that will have a market capitalization of over $20 billion.

Under the restructuring to streamline Vedanta’s complex operations and cut costs, metals producer Sterlite Industries will merge with iron ore miner Sesa Goa, creating one of India’s biggest firms with annual revenues of $14.2 billion.

The new company, to be known as Sesa Sterlite, will create an “Indian natural resources champion”, said Vedanta’s billionaire chairman Anil Agarwal, known as “the metals king,” who started his career in Mumbai as a scrap dealer.

“This transaction is a natural evolution, leading to simplification of the group’s structure,” Agarwal told a televised news conference in Mumbai, India’s financial hub.