The government’s opposition to Hindustan Zinc’s plan to buy Vedanta Ltd’s global zinc assets for $2.9 billion could jeopardize the conglomerate’s efforts to trim its debt.
On 19 January, Hindustan Zinc Ltd announced it was buying Vedanta Ltd’s global zinc assets for $2.9 billion. Both firms are part of Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources. “This investment is an attractive opportunity for Hindustan Zinc to grow and increase its foothold overseas and take its brand globally,” the company said in a statement.
The Indian government, which holds a 29.54% stake in HZL and has three of its nominees on the company’s board, seemed to agree. It also didn’t matter that HZL’s shares plunged 9% after the announcement.
In fact, on 2 February, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the secretary of …
Prince leads the newsroom at The Morning Context as managing editor. A fascination with the written word has taken Prince to some of the leading newsrooms across the country, including The Economic Times, Dow Jones Newswires, Forbes India and Moneycontrol. In a career spanning 20 years, Prince has led teams, managed pages, projects and special editions, and has authored The Consolidators, published by Penguin Random House in 2017.
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