BHP to put US shale business on sale, acceding to one of Elliott’s demands
Melbourne — BHP is in talks with potential buyers of its US shale assets, acquired in a contentious $20bn deals spree in 2011, and will delay a move into potash after months of skirmishes with activist investors led by Paul Singer’s Elliott Management. The reversal by the world’s top miner comes after new chairman Ken MacKenzie, who will officially start his job in September, met more than 100 investors in recent weeks in Australia, the US and the UK amid demands from some shareholders for a change in strategy. BHP’s stock in London rose to its highest level in six months on Tuesday. “We’re talking to many parties and we’re hopeful” of completing a small number of trade sales to divest the onshore oil and gas division, CEO Andrew Mackenzie told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, adding that the moves on shale and potash were not the result of shareholder pressure. “We have been moving in this direction for some time” on shale, he said. Missteps on strategy by BHP’s leadership, includi...
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