New Anglo American shareholder insists he is no activist

Anglo American’s new billionaire shareholder says he has no intention of being an activist investor after paying $2.5bn for a 13% interest earlier in March. "At the moment, I’ve come in purely as an investor in my personal capacity and that is the intention," Anil Agarwal said in an interview at a commodities conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. "We’ve never been an activist. We’re purely an investor and we are going to support the management." Agarwal is also the founder and controlling shareholder in Indian resource conglomerate Vedanta Resources. His ultimate intentions after announcing a complex transaction to become Anglo’s second-biggest shareholder remain unclear. Analysts speculate that he might want to force a break-up or a merger.

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