Vedanta group today said it is yet to hear from the government on its subsidiary Sterlite's proposal to buy residual government stake in Hindustan Zinc (HZL) and Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) for about Rs 16,000 crore.
"We have given them the offer but we have not heard anything from them. We have to arrange so much of funds, so we are not sure where we are at the moment," Vedanta group chairman Anil Agarwal told reporters here after a meeting with Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy.
He said that Sterlite, which has acquired majority stake in HZL and Balco about a decade back, has made the offer in January, while terming his meeting with the Oil Minister as a courtesy call.
"In January, the government had asked us would you be interested in buying residual stake in HZL and Balco and we have given them the offer. It was about Rs 16,000 crore for both the companies together," the Chairman of the $70 billion metals and mining conglomerate said.
The government holds 49% stake in Balco and 29.54% in Hindustan Zinc. Majority stakes in these two companies were sold to Sterlite in 2001 and 2003 respectively.
Vedanta's offer has been made at a time when the government is looking at various sources of increased revenue generation, including divesting its stake in the public sector units (PSUs).
As part of its disinvestment programme, the government had managed to garner about Rs 12,600 crore from nearly 5% stake sale in energy giant ONGC through auction yesterday.
Last week, Vedanta announced revamp of its structure by merging Sterlite Industries with another group company Sesa Goa. The new entity, Sesa Sterlite, will be the controlling firm for Vedanta's Indian operations post merger, including oil producer Cairn India.
Stating that Cairn India's brand identity will remain the same post merger of Sterlite and Sesa Goa, Agarwal said that the oil producer will shortly increase its production to 2,40,000 barrels per day (BPD) from current levels of 1,50,000 BPD.
Vedanta had completed the acquisition of Cairn India in last December.