Vedanta to pay $34 mln to up MALCO stake to 93 pct

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Indian-focused mining group Vedanta Resources Plc plans to pay $34 million to boost its stake in Madras Aluminium Company Limited (MALCO) to 93 percent from 80 after an offer to minorities shareholders. It will apply to have the firm delisted from the Indian stock exchanges and continue to accept further shares at 115 rupees per share, the same price as the minority offer, a statement said on Monday. The minority offer, which was carried out by a reverse book build tender, closed on March 20. MALCO shares were trading 4.6 percent higher at 113.20 rupees on the Bombay stock exchange at 0724 GMT. On Jan. 28, Vedanta posted a 98.5 percent fall in third-quarter core profit due to low metals prices, inventory writedowns and currency losses. Vedanta produced 328,000 tonnes of aluminium in the nine months to Dec. 31, up 11.2 percent. Core profit from the aluminium unit accounted for about 15 percent of the total during the first three quarters of Vedanta's financial year. (Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Hans Peters)