Amid the shareholder unrest in the current AGM season, one spat has received too little attention: the row between miner Anglo American and Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal.
Agarwal, a streetfighting minerals entrepreneur, has built up a 19% interest in old establishment Anglo, where operations are dictated from genteel Carlton House Terrace.
It is among several big personal bets he’s made on South African mining. He views its geology and geography as perfect to feed the fast-growing Indian economy.
Which is why he takes issue with Anglo for — as he sees it — shifting the focus of the firm away from its South African roots. Anglo is investing billions of dollars in Peru.
This week, he voted against Anglo’s appointment to the board of a South American, Marcelo Bastos, saying it should have hired a South African.
You can see his point. Sort of. The eight-strong non-executive board consists of only one South African yet has two Brits, an American and two Aussies. But attacking the hire of a Brazilian seems unreasonable, given the continent’s importance to Anglo’s operations.
One suspects the answer lies in his wider efforts to curry favour in South Africa, where he has other big operations requiring political support. Opposing Bastos was a loud protest vote for the ears of SA president Cyril Ramaphosa.
As so often with Agarwal, all that is conjecture. We still don’t know why he built his Anglo interest, which he did with a complex loan rather than buying shares. Does he want it to get first dibs on future disposals? Does he want to launch a bid? Is he in Anglo for the long term? Who knows.
One thing’s clear though, a once-friendly relationship between board and investor could get nasty.
