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Agarwal new NRI entrant to billionaire league
Anil Aggarwal will become one of the wealthiest businessmen on LSE when he floats this week his mining company.
There is much flutter among rich Indians, who appear in the Rich lists every year. The flamboyant Indian-origin entrepreneur Anil Agarwal is to become one of the wealthiest businessmen on the London Stock Exchange when he floats this week his mining company Vedanta. He will have a paper fortune of £800 million.
The float of £770 million worth Vedanta, 100 per cent owned by the Agarwal family, will be the biggest listing in the City this year and will be the first primary listing of an Indian firm in the London market.
In the NRI circles and even among the English, Agarwal is being discussed with much curiosity. He has bought a £20 million home in London's prestigious Mayfair area and is reportedly applying for British citizenship.
The Sunday Times said that once his other assets are included he should appear in the billionaire league and be one of Britain's top 20 richest individuals.
According to reports he has made his money by helping the Government to privatise its mining assets. As a result Vedanta, which is a holding company for several subsidiaries, now owns some of Britain's most valuable cooper, zinc and aluminium mines.
Sources revealed that his strategists spent several months tidying up the company so as to be able to conform to UK Corporate-governance rules. Thus he would not be able to make the company pay for his private jet or household staff.
It is also said that in India he used to get a big pay package but that has been trimmed and is now in line with pay packages at other mining companies in London.
