Vedanta dips on delay to London listing of Zambian business

Vedanta Resources has fallen more than 1% after news it was delaying a proposed London listing of its Zambian copper business, just two weeks after announcing it.

The company had orginally planned to float Konkola Copper Mines next month, to raise around $1.1bn. But today it said the move would be postponed until next year because of the present uncertain state of the markets, due mainly of course to the Eurozone's financial crisis. It said:

With year end approaching and the current market volatility, the boards of Vedanta and Konkola have decided to pursue such listing in 2011.

In a market edging higher again after early jitters - the FTSE 100 is currently 20.31 points better at 5571.26 - Vedanta is down 24p at £19.86.

The news comes a day after another delay involving the company. The Indian government said it would not decide whether to approve Cairn Energy's deal to sell a majority of its business in the country to Vedanta until February. This too was initially expected by the end of this year.