Vedanta ready to spend $12 billion to acquire BPCL

Billionaire chairman Anil Agarwal said in an interview in Riyadh on Wednesday, “We’re not going to bid aggressively, but we’ll price right. The company’s market cap is about $11 billion to $12 billion, so that’s where we are.” The investment you are looking for.”

India’s plan to privatize BPCL has run into bad weather, with bidders struggling to find partners and spread their financial risks for big-ticket acquisitions. The country was hoping that the global oil major would work closely with investment funds to participate in the sale. But some bidders are finding it difficult to invest because of global sustainability regulations that make it difficult for them to make large investments in fossil fuels.

The sale, potentially the country’s biggest privatization, is important to the government as it needs to increase revenue for its spending programmes. It has already missed the September deadline to complete the sale of its entire 53 per cent stake in the country’s second largest state refiner BPCL. The current market capitalization of the company is around Rs 848.27 billion ($11.4 billion).

The commodity tycoon expects India to open bids for BPCL in March. Besides Vedanta Group, private equity firms Apollo Global Management and I Squared Capital have also shown interest in acquiring the government’s stake in the oil refiner.

“We have an agreement with the people, everyone is investing money as the deal goes through,” said Agarwal, adding that his company has partnered with London-based Centricus Asset Management Ltd for $10 billion to buy the assets. War chest made. Government of India wants to exit, including stake in Shipping Corporation of India.

Here are some more of his comments on Agarwal’s various businesses:

• Agarwal said he was confident that Vedanta would soon regain control of its copper unit in Zambia.
  • “The new government has publicly said that we have legal rights. The court has ruled. So I think it’s time to get our assets back.”
  • “We have invested about $3 billion in Zambia and we need to invest another $2.5 billion to make it world class.”
  • Note: The Zambia Copper Unit of Vedanta Resources is under provisional liquidation since May 2019 and the matter is still subject to court cases and arbitration proceedings.
• Vedanta sees good investment potential in zinc mining projects in Saudi Arabia.
• On the ESG front, Agarwal said he wants to invest $20 billion on permanently changing operations to production of metals, without adding any details.