Agarwal flexes muscle at Anglo's AGM
Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal's Volcan votes its 19.34% stake against a board appointment, arguing it should go to a South African.
Anglo American’s biggest shareholder, Volcan Investments, which is owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, voted against the appointment of a Brazilian independent director to the resources company’s board, reflecting a deepening of tensions between the two sides. The Agarwal’s family trust Volcan put in place a structure of exchangeable bonds over the past two years in exchange for 19.34% of Anglo shares from other investors. In 2020, Volcan has to either pay for the shares, allowing it to keep them or sell the stock for a profit, or extend the timeline on the bonds. After an attack on Anglo at the official opening of the Gamsberg Mountain zinc mine in February in front of South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe, the relationship between Agarwal and Anglo seems to have cooled from the warmth the Indian tycoon had exuded over the past two years as he built up the stake in the resource company. The vote against Marcelo Bastos’s appointm...
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