KOLKATA: One of the biggest regrets in the life of Kumar Mangalam Birla, the owner of Aditya Birla Group, was to lose Hindustan Zinc (HZL), once a central public sector behemoth, to Vedanta in 2002. Currently, HZL is the second-largest zinc-lead miner in the world after Swiss firm Glencore, and the fourth-largest zinc-lead smelter globally. It has also found a place in the top 10 list of silver producers in the world.
Replying to a question at an interactive session with members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on Friday, Birla said he still regrets losing the non-ferrous metal company a decade ago. “We had lost it by a whisker. There were some inventories which we had not accounted for, otherwise we could have made it,” he added.
HZL was sold in a two-phased transaction. The government had divested 45% of its stake in the firm for around Rs 769 crore.
Birla added that the telecom business has not done too well. “However, the performance has improved. Telecom has been a tough one for us. I think there have been several areas where we could have done better. It’s one of a few sectors in which we have not done well. Now, the situation is better and some factors that we did not do right were outside our purview. I think every situation, every business comes with its own set of learning.”
Birla was optimistic about the future of the Indian economy and compared the financial situation in 2021 with that of 1991. “2021 is the new 1991,” he said.
Commenting on the country’s infrastructure, the Aditya Birla Group chairman said that the government seems to be doing all the right things. “Our infrastructure spending would be more than that of the US,” he added. Birla was also hopeful that a shift is happening from informal to formal sectors.
He termed the next decade as the decade of ‘Capex Mahotsav’. “There would be both public and private spending. The capacity utilisation has also gone up and it will persist for a long time. As people would diversify from China, India would be the destination,” Birla added.
Replying to a question at an interactive session with members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on Friday, Birla said he still regrets losing the non-ferrous metal company a decade ago. “We had lost it by a whisker. There were some inventories which we had not accounted for, otherwise we could have made it,” he added.
HZL was sold in a two-phased transaction. The government had divested 45% of its stake in the firm for around Rs 769 crore.
Birla added that the telecom business has not done too well. “However, the performance has improved. Telecom has been a tough one for us. I think there have been several areas where we could have done better. It’s one of a few sectors in which we have not done well. Now, the situation is better and some factors that we did not do right were outside our purview. I think every situation, every business comes with its own set of learning.”
Birla was optimistic about the future of the Indian economy and compared the financial situation in 2021 with that of 1991. “2021 is the new 1991,” he said.
Commenting on the country’s infrastructure, the Aditya Birla Group chairman said that the government seems to be doing all the right things. “Our infrastructure spending would be more than that of the US,” he added. Birla was also hopeful that a shift is happening from informal to formal sectors.
He termed the next decade as the decade of ‘Capex Mahotsav’. “There would be both public and private spending. The capacity utilisation has also gone up and it will persist for a long time. As people would diversify from China, India would be the destination,” Birla added.
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