Shareholder Anil Agarwal offers mining giant Anglo help to expand in India

Anglo American Plc’s biggest shareholder, billionaire Anil Agarwal, has offered to help the mining giant expand into India.

“That’s a big market for them,” Agarwal said in an interview in Lusaka. “I am going to help them if they need to open up that market for them to work there.”

The mining tycoon wasn’t explicit about whether he wanted to assist Anglo with increasing sales to India or to start operating mines there. Currently Anglo has no operational presence in the world’s second-most populous nation, although most of the diamonds its De Beers unit sells are cut and polished in the country.

Agarwal surprised Anglo’s management last year when he took a 21 per cent stake in the company. The structure of the purchase, done via a mandatory exchange bond issued by a family company, effectively means he rents the shares until the bond matures in 2020.