Vedanta now holds exclusive rights to Cairn brand, renaming on Dec 13

Cairn Energy will become Capricorn Energy from that date, but will retain CNE sticker on London Stock Exchange

Vedanta now holds exclusive rights to the Cairn brand. Cairn Energy, the Scottish oil and gas exploration company, will change its company name to Capricorn Energy on December 13. The LSE stock ticker of the company, however, will remain CNE.

“This follows an agreement at the time of the Cairn India initial public offering that the name would ultimately be changed,” a statement on the Cairn Energy website said.

“Cairn Energy will discontinue the use of the brand name ‘Cairn’ as part of its corporate identity by December 2021,” Vedanta said in a statement.

“The brand ‘Cairn’ is exclusively owned by Vedanta,” the statement added.

Commenting on the change, Vedanta’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sunil Duggal, said, “When Cairn Energy exited its Indian operations in 2011 after selling its stake to Vedanta Group, it continued to use the brand name ‘Cairn’ though the brand ‘Cairn’ is owned by Vedanta (erstwhile Cairn India).”

After being taken over by the Vedanta Group, the domestic company, Cairn India, disassociated itself from Cairn Energy. Both companies are now separate legal entities with different promoters and shareholders. Cairn India was later merged into Vedanta Limited in 2017 and renamed as Cairn Oil and Gas.

Prachur Sah, Deputy CEO, Cairn Oil & Gas, said, “The disassociation of Cairn Oil & Gas from Scottish company Cairn Energy was always a matter of fact. This clarity will help us disengage from issues involving Cairn Energy.”

Cairn Energy was engaged in a pitched battle with the Indian government on a retrospective tax dispute. The centre eventually budged and agreed for a settlement with Cairn Energy. “Given the recent legislative change in India and our participation in the related tax refund process, we are now putting in place the planned name change,” Cairn Energy said.

“The majority of Cairn’s subsidiaries have been known as Capricorn for some time. It is an established name across our global operations,” the company added.