Vedanta Chairman Confident Sesa Goa, Sterlite Holders To Approve Deal

U.K-listed, India-focused miner Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) is confident that shareholders will approve the proposed merger of its majority-owned Sterlite Industries Ltd. (500900.BY) and Sesa Goa Ltd (500295.BY) units, the company's chairman said Saturday.

"It is a very win-win [transaction] for everyone," he said Chairman Anil Agarwal in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

He said the proposal is better than the restructuring proposal unveiled to shareholders in 2008. That proposal was met with shareholder resistance and ultimately scrapped.

Agarwal said that "shareholder value is enhanced" in the current deal.

Vedanta owns a 55% stake in Sesa Goa and a 58% direct and indirect stake in Sterlite Industries.

Vedanta has proposed merging Sterlite into Sesa Goa to create a new company called Sesa Sterlite. The proposed merger envisages Sesa Goa issuing three shares for every five Sterlite shares, in a deal that would create the world's seventh largest global diversified natural resources company by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda with assets in oil and gas, zinc, iron ore, lead, aluminum and electricity.

Sesa Goa could have a valuation of more than $20 billion once the deal is completed, Agarwal said. The deal is expected to close toward the back end of the third quarter or fourth quarter of 2012 but needs both shareholder and regulatory approvals before it can close.

Vedanta shareholders are expected to vote on the deal at an extra-ordinary meeting in May while Sesa Goa and Sterlite shareholders are expected to vote on the deal at a similar meeting in June 2012.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9328; [e-mail]

   (Sourav Mishra in Mumbai contributed to this story.)