Vedanta not a buyer for Hindustan Zinc, says chairman

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Vedanta not a buyer for Hindustan Zinc, says chairman

Vedanta, which is the largest shareholder in Hindustan Zinc, will not be looking at increasing its stake in the listed entity at a time when the government is looking at selling its residual stake in the company, said Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta Group.

I am not a buyer. There will be so many buyers. He spoke to Business Today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and there are so many equity funds who will be very keen to buy this and they are looking forward to this kind of opportunity to come.

Government should not be in a business. They held on to this for 15 years. We have to go to the government for every decision. We could have taken this company Hindustan Zinc far more ahead, but we couldn't take it because government was there and there were compulsions. They made a right decision, he added.

According to the latest shareholding pattern of Hindustan Zinc, the government has a stake of 29.58 per cent, while Vedanta has nearly 65 per cent.

Fibre will take our country to a different level. We are the largest producer of optical fiber. We are creating software, system integration. He said that India imports $17 billion of glass, which is the fourth-largest producer of display glass.

The multinational conglomerate has already acquired companies in Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

Semiconductor is glass. Agarwal said that they have partnered with the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer from Taiwan and they are going to invest $2 billion.

We have to create another Taiwan. We need to create another Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley was created by Indians and why can't we create it in India. He said there should be clusters for different industries.

He said that it can happen in the current government regime as clearances are quicker with less bureaucracy.

Agarwal said he will take a call when the time comes when he is not interested in BPCL.

Like BPCL, the government probably has 50 other companies. I am not interested in BPCL As and when it comes. He said that if the government can corporatize this company, they can create five times more value.

We have a reservoir of oil gas, but we need to break all the rules. That is what we have been saying. You do not know how many permissions we need to dig a hole. We are governed by ONGC. How a competitor will allow us to be better than him. We don't get clearances as we want. Agarwal said we can't sell our product.

In Davos, I have not done anything except going to all the oil companies and saying that come and invest in India, he said.