Mumbai, Dec. 7: Vedanta Resources has initiated the process of acquiring a controlling stake in Cairn India after receiving two critical approvals for the deal.

Group company Sesa Goa, along with its subsidiary Sesa Resources, today acquired around 1.5 per cent of Cairn India from parent Cairn UK Holdings at an average price of Rs 325 a share through a block deal on the BSE.

This has taken Sesa Goa’s stake in Cairn India to 20 per cent. Sesa Goa acquired over 2.43 crore shares, while its subsidiary bought 45 lakh shares.

The share purchase came after Vedanta announced that it had satisfied the conditions under the sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Cairn India and was working with Cairn Energy Plc towards closing the transaction.

Though a spokesperson for Vedanta declined to comment, sources said the stake acquisition process would continue now and there would be a change in the composition of the Cairn India board after the completion of the deal.

“The formal process (for buying Cairn Energy Plc stake), which includes bringing in the money, will start now and an announcement will be made over the next few days,’’ the source said.

In a separate statement, Cairn Energy said it would return a substantial portion of the sale proceeds to the shareholders and would retain around 22 per cent holding in Cairn India.

Though the transaction was announced in August last year the deal could not be completed because of disagreements between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd and Cairn over royalty payments.

ONGC owns 30 per cent stake in the country’s largest onshore oilfield in Rajasthan where Cairn India is the operator with a 70 per cent holding.

According to earlier terms of the production-sharing contract, ONGC bore the burden of royalty payments. However, the PSU later wanted this to be renegotiated. Though Cairn India had agreed to this, a security clearance from the home ministry and a no-objection certificate from ONGC were the final hurdles, which were cleared recently.

On the BSE, the Cairn India stock today closed nearly a per cent higher at Rs 322.35.