Anil Agarwal Height, Weight, Age, Facts, Biography

Anil Agarwal is an Indian businessman who is best known as the founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited, an Indian diversified mining company headquartered in London. It is the largest mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and has mining operations in Australia and Zambia, and oil and gas operations in 3 countries. Its key products include zinc, lead, silver, oil & gas, iron ore, steel, and aluminum. It has also developed commercial power stations in the Indian states of Odisha and Punjab. The company is primarily owned by Anil and his family through Volcan Investments, a holding vehicle with a 100% stake in the business. In October 2017, Volcan Holdings Plc acquired a 19% stake in Anglo American, a British-listed multinational mining company, making Anil the biggest shareholder of that company. In 2021, the Anil Agarwal Foundation pledged to spend more than INR 5,000 crore over 5 years on social programs focused on nutrition, women & child development, healthcare, animal welfare, and sports. He has also reportedly pledged to donate 75% of his family’s wealth to charity.

Born Name

Anil Agarwal

Nick Name

Metal King

Sun Sign

Aquarius

Born Place

Patna, Bihar, India

Residence

London, England, United Kingdom

Nationality

Education

Anil had attended Miller High School in his hometown of Patna. He joined his father’s aluminum conductor business after his high school graduation, instead of going to university.

Occupation

Businessman

Family

• Father – Dwarka Prasad Agarwal (Businessman) (d. January 2020)
• Siblings – Navin Agarwal (Brother) (Businessman, Vice Chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited), Pravin Agarwal (Brother) (Business Executive)

Net Worth

On January 22, 2023, Anil Agarwal and his family had a net worth of $2.9 billion according to Forbes.

Build

Average

Height

5 ft 7 in or 170 cm

Weight

76 kg or 167.5 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Anil has dated –

1. Kiran Agarwal – Through his long-term marriage to a journalist, author, poet, and entrepreneur named Kiran, Anil has 2 children – a son named Agnivesh Agarwal (Business Executive) and a daughter named Priya Agarwal (PR Professional).

Race / Ethnicity

Asian (Indian)

Hair Color

Bald

Eye Color

Dark Brown

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

• Mildly stocky frame
• Bespectacled
• Affable smile
• Often sports a light stubble

Religion

Hinduism

Anil Agarwal Facts

1. When Anil was about 19 years old, he left his hometown of Patna for Mumbai (then Bombay) to explore career/business opportunities.
2. In the mid-1970s, he began collecting scrap metal from cable companies in other states of India and selling it in Mumbai. In 1976, he acquired a company called Shamsher Sterling Corporation, a manufacturer of enameled copper, and ran both these businesses for the next decade.
3. In 1986, Anil set up a factory to manufacture jelly-filled cables which gave rise to a new corporation called Sterlite Industries. He soon realized that his profits were fluctuating with the prices of his raw materials (copper and aluminum) and decided to control this by manufacturing these metals instead of buying them.
4. In 1992, he established the Vedanta Foundation to carry out philanthropic programs. In the financial year 2013-14, it was reported that the Vedanta Foundation had invested USD 49 million in building hospitals, schools, and infrastructure; and funded community programs that impacted the lives of more than 4 million people.
5. In 1993, Sterlite Industries established a copper smelter and refinery, becoming the first private sector company in India to do so. About 2 years later, Sterlite Industries acquired a company called Madras Aluminium that had been shut down for 4 years.
6. Anil acquired a 51% stake in BALCO (Bharat Aluminium Company), a public sector undertaking, in 2001, for INR 551.50 crore, after the Government of India announced a disinvestment program. The following year, he acquired a nearly 65% stake in a state-run company called HZL (Hindustan Zinc Limited).
7. In December 2003, Anil and his team incorporated Vedanta Resources Plc in London. It was the first Indian firm to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, the most-valued stock exchange in Europe. Vedanta Resources Limited became the parent company of the group.
8. In 2004, Vedanta Resources Plc announced a global bond offering and acquired Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia. That year, a committee of India’s Supreme Court charged that Vedanta Resources Limited had dumped thousands of tons of arsenic-bearing slag near its factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, causing major poisoning of the environment.
9. In 2005, another committee of India’s Supreme Court charged that the company had displaced more than a hundred indigenous families in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, where it was seeking permission to mine bauxite.
10. In 2007, Vedanta Resources Limited acquired a controlling stake in Sesa Goa Limited, India’s largest producer and exporter of iron ore.
11. In 2010, the company acquired zinc assets in Namibia, Ireland, and South Africa from the South African subsidiary of Anglo American, a multinational mining company. In 2011, Vedanta Resources Limited acquired a controlling stake in Cairn India, India’s largest private-sector oil-producing firm.
12. In 2014, an audit was conducted by Zambian officials to investigate allegations that Vedanta Resources Limited had not paid the requisite fees to the local government. In Zambia, there were also allegations against the company concerning irregularities in severance/disability pay and the dumping of hazardous waste into a river from its copper mine.
13. In 2015, the Vedanta Foundation, in partnership with the Government of India’s Ministry for Women and Child Development, established the first ‘Nand Ghar’, a modernized version of Anganwadi, a type of rural child care center that was started by the Government of India in 1975 to combat child hunger and malnutrition. The establishment of more than 4,000 such ‘Nand Ghars’ was also announced that day.
14. In March and April 2018, there were massive protests against the company’s plans of setting up a smelting complex in the state of Tamil Nadu, on grounds of violating environmental regulations. In May 2018, 13 people were killed and several others were injured, following a police shooting that was trying to quell the protest.
15. In 2022, it was announced that Vedanta Resources Limited and Foxconn (a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer) would jointly invest about USD 20 billion to build semiconductor plants in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
16. Through its numerous investments, Vedanta Resources Limited, as of January 2023, was reported to be contributing as much as 4% of the GDP of Odisha, the 8th largest Indian state by area.
17. In March 2023, Anil Agarwal urged the Indian government to sell its 29% stake in Hindustan Zinc Limited which the govt had agreed to sell around 20 years back.

Featured Image by Anil Agarwal / Instagram