Vedanta eyes govt's remaining stake in HZL, Balco

Vedanta Resources Vice-Chairman Naveen Agarwal today said he is hopeful of acquiring the government's remaining stake in Balco and Hindustan Zinc (HZL) by the fiscal-end.

"The final arbitration process for acquiring government's 49 per cent stake in Balco is scheduled to start in early December. Both, Balco and Hindustan Zinc call option should be completed in the current fiscal," Aggarwal said during an analyst call conference.

The metal and mining major has already said it is ready with around Rs 8,000 crore to buy out the remaining stake in the company which is with the government.

As part of the privatisation programme initiated by the NDA government, Vedanta had bought a 51 per cent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) for Rs 551 crore and 64 per cent in HZL for over Rs 750 crore.

The government's stake in Balco is 49 per cent and in HZL 29.5 per cent, while the balance of HZL's equity is held by the public.

The company has earlier said that acquiring the residual equity in the two companies is crucial for his overall corporate restructuring programme.

The issue of residual equity in Balco had created a rift between Vedanta and the government following which the matter had reached the Delhi High Court in 2006 regarding the mining major's call option to fully acquire the firm.