No plans to retire soon: Vedanta chief

Agarwal, 64, who rose from running a tiny scrap metal business four decades back to becoming one of the India’s wealthiest tycoons with a business empire spanning across mining and petroleum, indicated that his son Agnivesh or daughter Priya may not head the group as it is too big to have a family succession plan.

He has delisted his flagship Vedanta Resources from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is now concentrating on growing mineral mining and oil and gas businesses out of the India-listed firm, Vedanta Ltd.

I own 50 percent of the company (Vedanta Ltd) and even out of that 75 per cent has been pledged to philanthropy, he said.

Virtually ruling out someone from his family succeeding him, he said: No large company like this should have the family ownership, adding that Agnivesh and Priya have their own passion and are doing very well.

His son is based in Dubai but not much is known about him, while his daughter has been on the boards of some of his companies, including oil explorer Cairn India.

They (children) have their own passion. My children are very capable and they are doing very well, he said, adding he has hired the finest CEOs to run the group.

Time to come, we will remain shareholders and company should be run as an institution. But at the moment, you need a visionary, you need somebody to drive. Like nobody can think of producing half a million barrels oil in such a short time unless you have aggression, you have entrepreneurship, you can take the bull by the horn. And you have risk-taking capability. And I think I will provide that for my country, he said.

Asked if this meant he has no plans to retire soon or take a non-executive role, he snapped back, Why should I hang (my boots). I have a task (to finish).

Agarwal had in 2012 indicated that he would in 3-4 years time step back from the driving seat to take the mentoring role of non-executive chairman.

He, however, said he has covered myself very well by appointing extremely capable CEOs and executives to run the institution well.