In Blow To Vedanta’s Agarwal, SC Refuses To Stay Adani Acquisition

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – Vedanta Limited has lost to Adani Group in a high-stakes battle over the acquisition of bankrupt Jaiprakash Associates, after the Supreme Court of India declined to intervene and allowed the process to continue in lower tribunals.

At the heart of the nearly $4 billion deal is the fate of India’s only Formula One track, the Buddh International Circuit, which has remained dormant for over a decade. The circuit last hosted a race in 2013, and since then, Formula One has been absent from India due to regulatory and taxation disputes that made the event financially unviable.

Now, the potential transfer of the circuit to the Adani Group has revived hopes of a comeback. Karan Adani recently said he is “very personally engaged” in efforts to bring Formula One back to India after a 13-year gap, signaling that the track could once again host international racing if the acquisition goes through.

The broader deal includes a wide range of assets beyond the racetrack, from real estate holdings and power units to cement plants. While Vedanta argued that its $1.8 billion bid was financially superior, lenders favored Adani’s $1.5 billion offer for its stronger upfront payments and execution certainty.

Vedanta had approached the Supreme Court seeking to pause the acquisition, but the court refused, noting that the matter should be handled by the appropriate lower tribunal and that there was no need for it to step in at this stage.

For Adani Group, the acquisition aligns with its expanding real estate ambitions, including major redevelopment projects in Mumbai such as Dharavi. (with Reuters input)