RON DERBY: High stakes with a rented Anglo stake
For three years, and without having to spend a cent of his own vast wealth, Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal has reserved his seat in Anglo's world, writes Ron Derby
Anglo American's next board meeting is sure to be an interesting one as once again the miner is being dragged kicking and screaming into the murky world of M&A activity. Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal's audacious move to effectively rent almost 12% of the miners shares, and thereby have a hand in whatever direction the miner takes in future, comes with a lot of market speculation about just what his intentions are. A board seat will certainly be hard to come by, but I suspect that as a "shareholder" Agarwal will be an unwelcome insider. For three years, and without having to spend a cent of his own vast wealth, the Indian billionaire has reserved his seat in Anglo's world. To acquire (and I use this term loosely) his stake in the 100-year-old miner, Agarwal borrowed about $2-billion from bond investors through a three-year note paying interest of 4.125% a year. Effectively, you could say, he will be warehousing Anglo shares, and in that time he will be hoping some sort of deal is d...
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