'My family fasted for 9 days': Vedanta's Anil Agarwal reveals the Duratube tale

Founder and Chairman of Vedanta Resources Ltd, Anil Agarwal, revealed the behind-the-scenes tale of the acquisition of Duratube, and the learnings that came along with the setback of selling it off. He said that in business, failure is one of the finest things that can happen to you.

In a LinkedIn post, Agarwal said that acquiring Duratube was an ambitious task for the company, as he was one of the first Indians to acquire a British company. 

“While it was important to establish ourselves in the British business circuit, it was also a risk. When we were in the process of putting our bid, it was around Navratri so my whole family fasted for all 9 days and prayed for my success,” he said. 

Agarwal said that the Vedanta team, along with him, was determined to make this deal work. They even hired a British managing director to make him the face of the company. He said that they tried to do things themselves instead of hiring professionals “And maybe, this is where we went wrong,” he said, adding that the Duratube decision did not go the way they wanted and had to sell it off. 

“It was a difficult time for me, but as they say, every setback is a comeback in the making. And here, the cosmos was setting me up for a bigger and better comeback. It eventually led to my next successful business abroad,” said Agarwal. 

The Vedanta founder said that the Duratube decision taught them how to run a business abroad, which eventually led him to the next successful business acquisitions, two of which were in Australia and one in America. 

In an earlier post, Agarwal had said that he learnt about cable company Duratube’s bankruptcy while on a train to Manchester. He started thinking about acquiring it and got in touch with a banker from HSBC Bank, after which he found that located in Feltham, Duratube was the sole supplier of British Telecom at the time.

He slowly built business relations in a foreign land, which helped him secure £3 million from the bank to acquire Duratube. 

Also read: 'Learnt their rang dhang': Vedanta boss Anil Agarwal remembers 'nervous' days in the UK