Vedanta to list four demerged companies within a month, says Anil Agarwal

Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal has said all four demerged entities of the conglomerate will be listed independently within the next month as the group prepares for a major expansion drive across key sectors including metals, mining, energy and hydrocarbons.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Agarwal said the restructuring would create focused businesses with ambitious growth targets backed by nearly $20 billion in planned capital expenditure and an estimated EBITDA of around $10 billion.

“By next month all the individual identities will be listed,” Agarwal said.

Under the demerger plan, Vedanta Aluminium will emerge as a standalone company with a target to double annual production from the current three million tonnes to six million tonnes within three years. Agarwal said the business aims to become the world’s largest privately owned aluminium producer.

He added that the company also plans to establish around 1,000 downstream industries through an industrial park model to support manufacturing and value addition linked to aluminium production.

The second independent entity will focus on oil and gas operations, a business Agarwal described as his “heart and soul”. Vedanta plans to invest $5 billion over the next three to five years to increase production to 500,000 barrels per day.

The group’s hydrocarbon portfolio includes shale gas, tight oil, shallow-water and deep-water assets, along with a block in northeast India where Agarwal said the country’s first oil production began. He also urged the government to provide longer-term leases to encourage large-scale investments in the sector.

The third business will be a power company currently producing 4,000 megawatts, with plans to scale up capacity to 20,000 megawatts entirely through brownfield expansion projects.

Agarwal defended the continued use of coal-based power generation, saying coal would remain a critical energy source for the foreseeable future.

“Coal is not going anywhere,” he said.

The fourth demerged company will house Vedanta’s iron and steel operations. The group currently produces four million tonnes of steel annually and plans to expand output to 15 million tonnes of specialised and green steel products.

Agarwal said captive iron ore and coke resources would support the expansion strategy.

Following the demerger, Vedanta Limited will retain its zinc and critical minerals operations, including its majority stake in Hindustan Zinc and the Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa.

The billionaire industrialist said the group’s expansion plans would largely be financed through internal accruals and insisted funding would not become a constraint.

“Funds will never come in the way,” he told CNBC-TV18.

Agarwal also called for reforms in India’s mining and natural resources policies, arguing that existing 50-year mining lease limits discourage long-term investment.

“What is this 50 years? They are taking back — people will run away. Nowhere in the world is it like this,” he remarked.

He further advocated a unified regulatory framework for all underground resources, replacing separate policies governing oil, minerals and mining activities.

On privatisation, Agarwal backed a broader transfer of public sector enterprises into private hands, citing airports and telecom as examples where private participation had improved performance.

“Everything has to be privatised. No one person will be retrenched,” he said.

Asked whether Vedanta would pursue privatisation opportunities, Agarwal said the company remained open to evaluating assets that created value for shareholders.

He also highlighted India’s heavy dependence on imports of natural resources, estimating the country imports around $400 billion worth of below-ground resources annually.

“The world does not want us to produce. They want India to be a market,” he said.

Looking ahead, Agarwal identified aluminium, copper, and oil and gas as the commodities with the strongest long-term potential and said India could also emerge as a major producer of defence equipment if industrial infrastructure is modernised and privatised.