Anil Agarwal given more time to make firm offer for Vedanta Resources

Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources Ltd. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia)

Billionaire Anil Agarwal has been given more time to make a firm offer or walk away from a deal to buy out minority shareholders in Vedanta Resources for 778 million pounds ($1 billion), the London-listed miner said on Monday.

Agarwal’s vehicle Volcan Investments had faced a deadline of 1700 London time (1600 GMT) to declare its intentions towards Vedanta but British regulator the Takeover Panel has granted an extension to Aug. 6 to facilitate financing talks between Volcan and its lenders over its all-cash bid, the miner said.

It comes after Volcan said on July 2 that it planned to offer minority shareholders 825 pence a share to acquire the 33.5 percent of Vedanta that it does not already own and delist the group. ($1 = 0.7613 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Susan Fenton)