Vedanta Expects Positive Feedback From Credit Ratings Agencies

U.K.-listed, India-focused Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) has received favorable indications from credit ratings agencies that a simplified and consolidated corporate structure will improve the company's debt profile, the company's chief financial officer said Saturday.

The proposed corporate restructuring "should be positive" in terms of the company's credit rating profile, said Anil Agarwal, Vedanta's chairman, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

The credit agencies "have not said they will increase it [the company's credit rating], but they said it [the merger proposal] will improve the debt profile" of Vedanta, finance chief Tarun Jain said during the interview.

He referenced a Standard and Poor's statement earlier in the week that said a simplified Vedanta corporate structure "could improve the holding company's debt service coverage."

S&P has a foreign currency BB/Negative credit rating on the stock.

Vedanta announced Saturday plans to merge its two largest Indian subsidiaries Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. (500900.BY) and Sesa Goa Ltd. (500295.BY) into a single entity called Sesa Sterlite. The merger would create the world's seventh-largest globally diversified miner by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization with assets in oil and gas, iron ore, zinc, lead, silver, copper, aluminum and power.

As part of the deal, Vedanta plans to fold its other businesses, Vedanta Aluminium Ltd. and The Madras Aluminium Co. Ltd. on a 100% consolidated basis into Sesa Sterlite. It will also transfer a 39% stake in oil and gas explorer Cairn India Ltd. (532792.BY) to Sesa Goa, along with its debt of $5.9 billion.

The deal is forecast to reduce Vedanta's debt from $9.65 billion to $3.75 billion and decrease its debt service cost to around $180 million in the financial year ending March 31, 2013, from close to $500 million at the moment, Jain said.

The debt maturity profile will also be extended significantly to maturities with more than three years.

Jain said that the company has sought to simplify its corporate structure due to concerns about the company's complex cross holdings which raised concerns about conflicts of interest.

"So I think this exercise will remove all those concerns and put forward a very simple, straight forward structure which will bring more visibility to earnings and predictability of cashflow," he said. It will "also align liabilities and earnings in one place," at the operational level, he added. Currently a large portion of the debt is held at the holding company while the six holdings generate the earnings.

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