Investors keep tabs on miners
Activist shareholders apply pressure in an attempt to squeeze out the most profit from recovery in commoditie
Melbourne/Sydney — The world’s mining giants better get used to the attention. Their recovery from a price collapse that sent the industry spiralling into crisis is delivering a fresh challenge: renewed scrutiny from major investors eager to magnify returns. Billionaires Paul Singer, Alisher Usmanov and Anil Agarwal are among those to add holdings in 2017 after profit rebounded from 2015 and 2016. Mining companies’ management will have to adapt to a more critical eye and greater public notice as their businesses become more compelling to investors, according to Brenton Saunders, a Sydney-based analyst and portfolio manager at BT Investment Management. "Everybody is being questioned," Saunders said. "Investors have grown up a little in the post-supercycle period, in terms of the way they evaluate strategy." BHP Billiton, the world’s top miner, is fending off a three-pronged proposal from Singer’s Elliott Management, which the hedge fund believes will deliver a 50% lift to returns. Re...
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