Cairn India board to meet today to discuss merger with Vedanta

Cairn India on Saturday said its board of directors will meet on Sunday to deliberate on the proposed merger with Vedanta Ltd.

In a BSE filing Cairn India said: “A meeting of Board of Directors of the company will be held on June 14, 2015, inter alia, to consider and evaluate amalgamation of the company with Vedanta Limited.” Meanwhile, as per sources, boards of Cairn India and Vedanta Ltd at a meeting tomorrow will consider ‘reverse’ merger aimed at cutting debt on Vedanta books as well as the share swap ratio and decide on the timelines for completion of the merger. Vedanta in 2011 acquired majority control of Cairn India for $8.67 billion. It holds 59.9 per cent in the oil explorer through its various units as of March 31. 

As a prelude to the merger, Vedanta had this month bought some of the shares held by Agarwal’s Twin Star Mauritius Holdings to raise its stake in Cairn India to 23.71 per cent from 18.73 per cent. Twin Star now holds 34.43 per cent in Cairn India. Vedanta may at a later date merge its other cash cows, Hindustan Zinc Ltd and Bharat Aluminium, they said.