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Vedanta Resources' founder and largest shareholder, Anil Agarwal, has steadily built up his stake in the London-listed mining and oil & gas company this year, recent filings from the company show.
The scrap metal-dealer-turned-billionaire has made multiple stock purchases in January and February, raising his stake in the company to 68.46 per cent as of February 20 from 66.93 per cent at the start of the year.
The latest regulatory filing, published on Wednesday, showed Agarwal bought 210,000 shares at 851.48 pence a share on February 20 through his investment vehicle, Volcan Investments.
Vedanta's stock closed at 842 pence on Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange.
The company, grappling with regulatory hurdles and low commodity prices, was one of three miners to be demoted from the FTSE-100 index last year. Its stock has lost nearly a third of its value in the last 12 months.
Liberum analyst Ben Davis said the latest purchases by Agarwal might be an attempt to signal to investors that Vedanta's stock had been oversold. While promoters buying shares in their companies to shore up their stock price is nothing new, the frequency of Agarwal's purchases has prompted trader chatter that he could be looking to make an offer to take the company private.
Neither Vedanta nor Volcan Investments were available for comment.
Taking the company private would severely restrict Vedanta's access to public funds. It would also clash with Agarwal's ambition of growing the company to compete with the likes of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.
