Vedanta’s Chairman Anil Agarwal joins hands with Centricus Asset Management for turnaround fund

Indian mining and metal tycoon Anil Agarwal, who made a fortune acquiring, state-owned companies and revamping them, is drawing up to raise an investment fund targeting turnaround opportunities in the country, as per industry sources.

The Founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources Ltd. is working with Centricus Asset Management Ltd. on the plans. They have started approaching potential investors for the proposed India Direct Investment fund, which will buy stakes in government companies being sold as part of the country’s INR 2.1 divestment program.

According to the industry source, the fund will also target companies restructuring under India’s bankruptcy regime and it will look at both private and public firms. Agarwal and London-based Centricus plan to contribute as much as 10% of the capital.

The Prime Minister of India is putting some of India’s corporate icons on the block in a bid to plug budget holes and fund infrastructure spending. Agarwal is seeking to find the gems among the dozens of companies being sold and tap his industry connections to turn them around, as he tries to repeat his success in building up a metals and mining powerhouse.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Agarwal has a net worth of about $2.4 billion. He built his business through a series of ambitious acquisitions over the past few decades, including a 2001 deal to take control of government-owned Bharat Aluminium Co. in one of the first tests of India’s efforts to offload state holdings.

According to Centricus website, it oversees $27 billion in assets. The firm was founded in 2016 by Nizar Al-Bassam, a former investment banker at Deutsche Bank AG, and ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Dalinc Ariburnu. Centricus advised SoftBank Group Corp. on the creation of its $100 billion Vision Fund and also worked on its $3.3 billion takeovers of Fortress Investment Group LLC.

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