Vedanta

Vedanta Limited is a multinational mining company primarily involved in exploring, extracting and processing minerals, oil and gas. The company deals in aluminium, zinc, lead, silver, iron ore, steel, copper, power and ferrochrome mining. It operates mines in Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Odisha.

London-based Vedanta Resources is its parent company. Vedanta Limited has subsidiaries such as Hindustan Zinc Limited, Bharat Aluminium, Sterlite Copper and Cairn Oil. Vedanta began its journey as Sterlite Industries in the 1980s. The company was founded by Anil Agarwal 44 years ago in 1979. In late 2003, the parent company Vedanta Resources went public with the listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). This initial public offering (IPO) was the second-largest in the United Kingdom that year.

Vedanta Ltd is listed both on the National Stock Exchange and BSE in India. The company’s market capitalisation stood at over ₹94,658 crore as of December 14, 2023. Vedanta Ltd shares have surged over 73% in the last three years.

Vedanta business operations

It serves a vast network of customers in nearly 50 countries. In the financial year 2022-23, Vedanta Limited's subsidiary Vedanta Aluminium produced half of India's total output with 2.29 million tonnes. Vedanta's aluminium segment consists of a refinery and a dedicated power plant situated in Odisha’s Lanjigarh, and a smelter and a captive power facility fuelled by thermal coal in Jharsuguda, also in Odisha. Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO), an arm of Vedanta Aluminium, operates an aluminium smelter in Korba, Chhattisgarh.

In April 2007, Vedanta Limited, which was primarily focused on mining and manufacturing copper, zinc and aluminium, expanded into the iron ore segment through the acquisition of Sesa Goa. The company acquired a 51% controlling stake in Sesa Goa from Japan's Mitsui & Company for $981 million (or roughly Rs 4,900 crore).

Vedanta Limited's copper segment specialises in custom smelting and consists of a comprehensive infrastructure, including a copper smelter, refinery, phosphoric and sulfuric acid plants, a copper rod plant and three captive power plants.

Its other notable subsidiary is Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL). The company's integrated zinc operations have a market share of 75% in India's primary zinc market. Vedanta holds a 64.9% stake in HZL, which is the fifth largest silver producer globally with an annual production of 714 tonnes in FY23. In the international market, Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) operates across three key locations: Skorpion Zinc mine and refinery in Namibia, Lisheen mine in Ireland, and Black Mountain Mining (BMM) Limited in South Africa. VZI operates the largest single-stream zinc beneficiation plant in the world based on ore throughput.

Earlier this year, in a bid to unlock better value, Vedanta Limited announced a plan to separate its business into six listed companies: aluminium, oil and gas, power, steel and ferrous, base metals and an incubator for new businesses including semiconductors.