Can Vedanta swallow giant Anglo American?
The recent appointment of AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan to head Vedanta Resources has got the rumour mill running at top speed, particularly because of major Vedanta shareholder Anil Agarwal’s 21% investment in Anglo American. But can Vedanta the minnow swallow Anglo the whale?
Indian mining tycoon Anil Agarwal has claimed his unusually structured investment in Anglo American the year before last is a passive investment. In truth, it’s more like passive aggressive. Now Agarwal has decided to appoint AngloGold CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (or Venkat as he is widely known) as CEO of his company Vedanta Resources, which has amplified the suspicions that this investment is a precursor to a takeover bid. But is it? Agarwal has been consistently foxy about his Anglo investment and declined to be interviewed on the topic by the Financial Mail. Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani also declined to be interviewed, but his staff did answer some questions on the relationship with Agarwal. More on that later. Venkat himself joined the schtum collective, with his aides saying he cannot and should not say anything about Vedanta until he takes up his new post in September. That has done nothing to stop the background chatter. The curiosity is intense and the debate byzantine. There...
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