
Administrateur du site
Messages: 4400
Inscription: Jeu 30 Juil 2009 16:48
Localisation: la seyne sur mer
Speedy closure of Cairn deal win-win for India: Agarwal
Published on Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 08:15 | Updated at Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 13:17 | Source : CNBC-TV18
Vedanta is hoping that the deal with Cairn will be completed soon. The company’s chief Anil Agarwal has said that the speedy closure of the deal with Cairn is a win-win situation for India.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, Agarwal said that the government of India is likely to honour contract and also willing to allay any concerns. “The government should support transfer of Indian asset to Indian owner,” he added.
Anil Agarwal, Vedanta
Excerpts from Power Breakfast on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »
RELATED NEWS
* Decision on Cairn's asset transfer by end-Feb: Oil Secy
* Cairn seeks govt nod to sell stake in key assets
ALSO READ
* See latest News about Cairn India
* See previous management interviews
* See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about Cairn India
On an optimistic note, Agarwal said that the deal should be judged fairly as they have a proven track record and one of the largest exporters from India. However, he is worried that foreign investors are closely watching the Cairn-Vedanta deal and may exit options if delayed.
He also added that Vedanta complied with all rules in Lanjigarh mines and is planning Sterlite Energy IPO by early next year.
Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Anil Agarwal on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.
Agarwal: We have no other intention except take the company forward. I have always said our intentions and government’s intentions are now separate.
Q: What is the communication from Cairn, are they feeling confident or they feeling optimistic?
Agarwal: Thousands of big shareholders are involved who have putting the money into the Cairn Energy for the investment in India. If you look at oil sector, lot of places where they invest the money, they don’t get any return. But this is the company where they put in the money, major institution, common man on the street; all have put in money into Cairn Energy for the development of oil in India. Today, they have an opportunity where they have exit and they have exited and they are going to get money out of it and everybody believe that this is going to happen.
Q: Let me talk about the other controversy that you are currently dealing with and that is with your Langigarh refinery where the Ministry of Environment of the center has said that you violated environmental norms, you did not have appropriate clearances before you ahead and began construction and your expansion there. You have of course refuted all of these allegations, you have responded to the government show cause notice to you, there was a committee that actually setup, and the committee also said that you flouted the environment norms. Is it the end of the road as far as your Lanjigarh expansion plans are concerned?
Agarwal: India has one of the finest and huge reserves of bauxite. Orissa has largest bauxite reserves and Langigarh has the largest bauxite reserves, that’s why we setup the plant there. The intention is that we have already invested the money, at the moment we are buying the bauxite from outside and running the plant which is not natural. We have complied with all the rules. Why will somebody go to Kalahandi and invest USD 2 billion? It’s the most backward area of India. We have gone there and invested on the presumption because here is the bauxite and here the development will take place.
Lanjigarh is a different phase today. Not a blade of grass has been moved. What are you talking about violating the norms? Not a blade of grass has been moved on that and the mine isn’t in our name. We were supposed to get the clearance, with the joint venture and before that this came up. Sometimes I believe that there are vested interests.
Q: So you are going to be tapping the Indian markets by early next year?
Agarwal: Early next year.
Q: You haven’t got SEBI approval so far, so you are waiting SEBI approval as well. Any timeline that you have been given by when you expect the clearance to come?
Agarwal: We have not in need of immediate cash; we are comfortable, but early next year we will go.
Q: What about Konkola because there has been lot of talk on the fact that you are looking at an IPO as far as Konkola mines are concerned?
Agarwal: Yes, this is the largest copper body in the world. We are looking forward to list that company early next year.
Q: And it will be listed here?
Agarwal: It will be listed in London or New York.
Q: What is the size of listing that you are looking at?
Agarwal: It will be a good size, it will straight fall into the FTSE 100.