'Spent sleepless nights to collect Rs 16L downpayment…’ Vedanta's Anil Agarwal recounts bitter-sweet experience of buying his 1st company

Vedanta Resources Limited Executive Chairman and founder Anil Agarwal likes to take trips down the memory lane, and often shares anecdotes of his humble beginnings in the Mumbai city on social media. In a latest Twitter post, Agarwal shared with his followers the bitter-sweet story of how he bought the Shamsher Sterling Cable Company -- his first purchase -- which became the building block of Vedanta Resources.


Agarwal confessed in his post that no sooner had he heard that the company was going bankrupt, he had begun dreaming about acquiring it, although he had no financial know-how or technical knowledge about the process of buying a bankrupt company. He researched and collected information about it and soon realised that he would require Rs. 16 lakhs for the down payment . Agarwal said that he had spent sleepless nights trying to find ways to accumulate the capital.



“My biggest help came from two individuals who have now passed away. Nitin Kantawala, a top lawyer in Gagrat and Company, and Dinkar Pai, a manager at Syndicate Bank, both assisted me in research, auction, and court approvals,” wrote the Vedanta top boss in his Twitter post.


Agarwal pointed out that if one really tries to reach his dreams, then the universe in its mysterious ways make it happen.“I managed to arrange the down payment of 16 lakhs through loans - 6 lakh from my own sources, 5 lakh from relatives, and 5 lakh from Rasik Bhai, a metal broker. As I signed the papers to officially buy the company in May 1976 I was teary-eyed and could not stop smiling. It was the happiest day of my life. But I had no idea that this was the turning point of a rollercoaster journey ahead,” he recounted.


Agarwal's purchase of Sterling was truly a landmark event for him, after which the entrepreneur undertook other ailing companies like Madras Aluminium and Bharat Aluminium Company under his wing, and turned them around too. He also ventured into mining and manufacturing section, and eventually in 2003, Sterling was revamped as Vedanta, which became the first publicly listed Indian company on the London Stock Exchange.


Born in Patna in 1954, Agarwal, the son of a small businessman, finished his matriculation from Miller High School before arriving at the Victoria Terminus station with high hopes to make something out of himself.


Agarwal soon got into the hustle of city life, and although he had no formal business training or college education, he built his company from scratch, making several acquisitions along the way, and transforming his small scrap metal business that he started in south Mumbai in early ‘70s into a major mining giant. According to Forbes, Agarwal’s estimated worth now is around $3.6 billion.