Vedanta Resources weighs Zambia copper IPO to fund $1 billion investment

Vedanta has pledged to invest $1 billion in the operation as part of negotiations with the state to secure its return to Konkola copper mines

By Preeti Soni and Haslinda Amin 

 

Vedanta Resources, the mining and energy company controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, is considering listing its Zambian copper unit to raise the funds it needs to invest in the asset. 

“Listing is an option,” Ajay Goel, chief financial officer of Mumbai-listed Vedanta Ltd., said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It is hard to give a timeline definitely, but it’s under active consideration.” 

 

He did not provide details on the size or location of the potential float.

 

The company regained control of the Konkola Copper Mines assets in Zambia last year, after the southern African nation’s government triggered its provisional liquidation about five years earlier, accusing Vedanta of lying about expansion plans and paying too little tax. The company has pledged to invest $1 billion in the operation as part of negotiations with the state to secure its return to Konkola. 

 

 

Konkola boasts resources with copper concentrations much higher than those in South America — today’s biggest global source of the metal needed to build electric cars and artificial intelligence data centers. But the deposits are also deep underground, where vast rivers make the operation one of the world’s wettest.