It’s crunch time for Anil Agarwal

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Editor's note: On 19 January, Hindustan Zinc Ltd announced it was buying Vedanta Ltd’s global zinc assets for $2.9 billion. Both firms are part of Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources. “This investment is an attractive opportunity for Hindustan Zinc to grow and increase its foothold overseas and take its brand globally,” the company said in a statement.  The Indian government, which holds a 29.54% stake in HZL and has three of its nominees on the company’s board, seemed to agree. It also didn’t matter that HZL’s shares plunged 9% after the announcement.  In fact, on 2 February, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the secretary of the finance minister’s Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said the government planned to sell a part of its stake in HZL to achieve this fiscal year’s disinvestment target.  Then things took an unexpected turn. On 6 February, CNBC-TV18 reported that the government opposed the proposed deal, with its nominees on HZL’s board objecting to it. The objection, the report added, had put the government’s partial disinvestment plan on hold. So, what changed within a week? “It looked like …