Vedanta plans to invest $20 billion in India

Mumbai: Vedanta Ltd will invest $20 billion across its businesses over the next 4-5 years, as the natural resources conglomerate envisages each of its soon-to-be demerged entities to be in a leadership position in its sector, group chairman Anil Agarwal said.Vedanta received the National Company Law Tribunal's clearance this week for the demerger, paving the way for the creation of four new entities over the next few months.Vedanta Aluminium, Vedanta Oil & Gas, Vedanta Power and Vedanta Iron & Steel will house the respective businesses, while Vedanta Ltd will hold the group's stake in Hindustan Zinc and act as an incubator for new and emerging businesses."We will probably look at investing $4 billion in oil and gas, and a similar amount in aluminium as a green field project," Agarwal told ET in a virtual interaction. "Another $2 billion is likely to be invested in zinc and silver and there will be some investments in the iron ore and steel business."Each of these businesses has the potential to be "gigantic" and is likely to follow Vedanta's trend of paying dividends, Agarwal said. "Each company should be like Vedanta, in terms of numbers, in terms of dividend and in terms of growth," he added.Aluminium and zinc are the two largest businesses for Vedanta Ltd, together accounting for more than 80% of the company's consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda). The group is aggressively expanding capacities in both these businesses.It plans to double capacity in aluminium and zinc businesses where it is the largest producer in India. Vedanta also plans to ramp up production of silver by four-fold to 3,000 tonnes. Agarwal did not specify a timeline for this.In its oil and gas business, the company is targeting production of a million barrels. "I am targeting 300,000 barrels to 500,000 (in 3-5 years) and in time to come a million barrels from our onshore, offshore and Northeast fields," Agarwal said. Investments in oil, he said, are always long-term.Vedanta will also set up power capacity of 18,000 MW in the years to come, and this will be through a mix of thermal and renewable energy at an investment of $2.5 billion.In its steel business, it is looking at green steel.