, Columnist
Vedanta's Misery Is India's Bounty
The global miner needs to retire or refinance $1.7 billion of debt by March, and Hindustan Zinc has lots of cash.
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India just won a tidy $860 million surprise present, for which the country's taxpayers and government owe a vote of thanks to Vedanta Resources Plc.
The gift came in the form of a special cash dividend announced Wednesday by Hindustan Zinc, a former state-controlled miner that was privatized 14 years ago. Vedanta's Indian unit, which owns about 65 percent of the zinc producer according to Bloomberg data, would love to buy the 29.5 percent stake still held by cash-strapped authorities, who would be glad to sell, except that any deal can't go through because the country's top court is yet to decide whether the 2002 privatization was legal in the first place.