Anil Agarwal

Anil Agarwal
$1.2 billion
London / Mumbai
51 . Married . 2 Children .
Source: Forbes
Associated Companies:

Anil Agarwal has shot into fame over the past five years. Like all first generation entrepreneurs he started quite moderately and turned his metal trading business into a conglomerate of copper, zinc and aluminum assets. Some time back he raised US $ 825 million by listing his Vedanta Resources on the London Stock Exchange, The mid-1970s, was a tough time for Indian business men. The License raj was at its peak and the overhanging cloud of bureaucracy, paperwork and red tapism ensured that no entrepreneur could move forward - they could only crawl. Each expansion or purchase required a license, inspection or review. A simple trip to the bank could become an all-day affair". Agarwal says that anything he did for ten years encountered phenomenal roadblocks,?


In the early part of this decade Anil Agarwal took some fierce bets. All these bets have paid off and catapulted him into the billionaire list. He bought copper mines in Zambia when the metal was at its trough; he aggressively bid for and won the majority shares in BALCO.


Now he wants to turn Vedanta into a mining and metals company on quality par with companies like the British giant Anglo American. The listing of Vedanta has attracted both attention and trouble. Investors, bureaucrats and labor unions have all treated Agarwal's ambitions with suspicion questioning the corporate governance practices at Agarwal's flagship company.


It has been 30 years since Anil Agarwal started his small time scrap metal trading business in Mumbai. The initial years were tough but he managed to expand his business under the burning fire of rising ambition. In the early 1980's Anil Agarwal was waiting for the telecommunication industry to create major demand for copper wires. Anticipating this huge demand Agarwal visited the U.S in 1983 to buy a closed down copper cable manufacturing plant. His managed to buy one of those for about US $ 2 million. He had more then partially funded it with a US $ 1.5 million bank loan. The new company that he formed Sterlite Industries grew very well. To fund his expansion plans he raised money from the Indian equity markets in four separate offerings. With this money and more Anil Agarwal set up aluminum products plant and later put up a copper smelter. All through out people called Anil Agarwal a bubble but the bubble was rising ? high in the skies.


When environmentalists tried to stop Sterlite's copper plant from being put up in Maharashtra Agarwal showed great strength and character. In a bold move Anil Agarwal moved his metal business Tuticorin, where again Agarwal tangled with protesters. A 1997 explosion at the plant killed at least two workers and injured several others. But Agarwal has managed himself very well. He has kept these protest, allegations, suits and regulatory problems away from his mental frame work and continues to do what he has done for the past two decades ? expand his metal business.