Anil Agarwal on why Vedanta picked Gujarat over Maharashtra for its chip plant

Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal said a 'team of professionals' had chosen Gujarat as the location for the Vedanta-Foxconn combine's upcoming ₹1.5-lakh crore semiconductor and display fabrication plant, a decision that set off a political storm in Maharashtra, which had also wooed the consortium.

In an interview, Agarwal told Nehal Chaliawala and Satish John that he had "no say" in choosing Gujarat over Maharashtra. He added that the funds for the project would be raised through debt and that the company had no plans as of now to sell equity stake. Edited excerpts.

Why did you choose Gujarat over others like Maharashtra?

It was a professional decision. Foxconn, a top management consultancy firm, an accountancy firm and an expert, created a team and they visited five or six states... each state opened their arms and offered everything we needed. I had no say at all in choosing Gujarat. But we had a time constraint and we had to move quickly. We didn't want to give another two months to them to keep evaluating. We said, "Put a fullstop. You recommend and whatever you decide, we will go ahead with." They recommended we go to Gujarat.

Who were the consultants?
I don't want to name them.

The amount involved in setting up the manufacturing complex is huge. How do you plan to fund it?
It will be done in two phases and one phase will be about $10 billion. There is not a single institution in the world that does not want to fund it. Funding will never be an issue. When I took over Balco for ₹550 crore, I don't think I had that money. When I got $14 billion for Cairn Energy, I don't think I had the funds. These are projects that the world looks forward to.

The world trusts Anil Agarwal, I don't know why. And they believe that if he has taken something up, then it will happen. Will you be parting with equity to raise funds?
No. At the moment, we will not part with equity. We will be raising only debt.

Will you be tapping into the $10-billion fund you are setting up with Centricus for acquiring government assets?
That was specifically for (acquiring assets when the government looks at) privatisation. So, as and when the privatisation happens, we will look into it. People are looking forward to it.

There are new reports of you considering making smartphones and electric vehicles...
No. We are very clear we want to do nothing else at this point except to make the raw material. We will be making semiconductor chips and glass. Like we make zinc, but we don't galvanise. We make silver, but we don't make jewellery. Ultimately, semiconductors and the glass have to be converted into consumer goods. We are not in that business. At the moment, I'm very focused on making this raw material, which is the most difficult thing to produce.