Vedanta demerger hostage to oil ministry
Vedanta is confident it can overcome the oil ministry's objections to its demerger, raised at a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) hearing in July 2025.
"We're working with the oil ministry as we do with all key stakeholders," stressed Vedanta CEO (Ms) Deshnee Naidoo during an earnings conference call on July 31 (2025). "We are confident we can reach a solution at the earliest."
Vedanta's proposed demerger of its core aluminium, oil and gas, power, and base metals businesses faced oil ministry objections during the first hearing before the NCLT Mumbai bench on July 2 (2025). The ministry's legal representative sought more time to present their comments.
Another hearing is scheduled for August 20 (2025). At stake is ongoing arbitration between the oil ministry and Vedanta-owned Cairn Oil & Gas over cost recovery for exploration, development, and production at the prolific RJ-ON-90/1 fields in Rajasthan.
"The oil ministry is a key stakeholder in our oil and gas business," stressed Naidoo. "And in the last NCLT hearing, the oil ministry expressed concern about the payments of any of the disputed dues that may become payable by Cairn if arbitration goes in their favour."
Naido continued that the August 20 (2025) hearing "will take us a step closer to the final order." Vedanta CFO Ajay Goel added: "The execution of the demerger remains a top priority for Vedanta."
At the July 2 (2025) hearing, stock market watchdog SEBI told the NCLT that it had no further comments on the demerger and is in the process of verifying Vedanta's compliance with all relevant SEBI norms. At the hearing, the National Stock Exchange legal counsel confirmed that the NSE has awarded a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the demerger, which Vedanta first announced in September 2023, to split the group into four independent listed companies.
In March 2025, Vedanta extended its own deadline to complete the demerger by six months to September 30 (2025) because it awaits NCLT and other regulatory clearances.