Anil Agarwal in Mumbai on Tuesday. (PTI)

April 5: The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to take a call on clearing Cairn India’s stake sale to London-listed Vedanta Resources at its meting tomorrow.

The CCEA — headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — meeting is being held a day after Vedanta group chairman Anil Agarwal said in Mumbai today that the Securities and Exchange Board of India had approved Sesa Goa’s open offer to buy 20 per cent from the minority shareholders of Cairn India Ltd.

Sesa Goa, a unit of Vedanta, is making the open offer at a price of Rs 355 per share. A green signal for the open offer had been pending since August last year when the Anil Agarwal group announced the acquisition of up to 60 per cent of Cairn India for $9.6 billion. Though the open offer was scheduled to open on October 2010, it was postponed as approvals did not come from the market regulator.

With the oil ministry finding the stake sale “too big for a ministry to decide”, the deal went to the CCEA for approval because of a standoff over the excess royalty Oil and Natural Gas Corporation paid for Cairn India’s oilfields in Rajasthan.

Speaking to newspersons in Mumbai on the sidelines of a Ficci function, Agarwal said, “We have already received Sebi’s approval for an open offer. The issue will open very soon. Within the next one or two days, we will send out the mails regarding this (the open offer) to all concerned.”

Though the Vedanta group chief did not disclose the date when the open offer would begin, it could commence as early as next week.

It is learnt that the market regulator cleared the open offer after Vedanta made some changes to the share purchase agreement with Cairn Energy Plc apart from agreeing to make more disclosures.

Agarwal was also confident that the deal would soon receive the approval of the government.

Petroleum secretary S. Sundareshan had earlier indicated that the deal might be cleared by the Centre.

“We have a deadline of April 15 and I believe the government will give its approval before that. The royalty issue has to be sorted out with the government and ONGC. We can take up that issue later,” he said.

Though Vedanta will buy shares from Cairn Energy at Rs 405 apiece, including Rs 50 a share as non-compete fees, the open offer to shareholders is at Rs 355 per share. Agarwal had earlier indicated that the open offer price would not be revised upwards.

On the BSE, the Cairn India share finished marginally lower at Rs 364.60 after hitting a new 52-week high of Rs 372 during intra-day trade. Thus the open offer price will be at a discount to the current market price.