Indian Vedanta to spin off four commodity companies -source

Sept 28 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Vedanta Ltd (VDAN.NS) will separate its commodities businesses into four companies to get better valuations, a source with direct knowledge of the move told Reuters on Thursday.

The company will spin off its metals, power, aluminium and oil and gas businesses and an official announcement is likely this week, the source said.

The move will need shareholder and other regulatory approvals and the process could take two to three months, the source said, declining to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Vedanta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comments.

The company was valued at 776.29 billion rupees ($9.33 billion) as of Wednesday, down by about a third so far this year.

Chairman Anil Agarwal said last month that Vedanta will consider separately listing all or some of its businesses, in contrast to his failed attempt in 2020 to delist Vedanta to speed up the process of simplifying its corporate structure.

Vedanta Resources, the UK-based parent of Vedanta Ltd, has been scrambling to raise funds due to rating downgrades and concerns about meeting debt obligations.

Earlier this year, Agarwal sought to trim down the groups debt load of $7.7 billion by getting Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZNC.NS), a unit of Vedanta Ltd, to buy some of the parents zinc assets in a $2.98 billion deal.

However, the Indian government, which owns nearly 30% stake in Hindustan Zinc, opposed the move.