Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani and his management team have a huge task ahead of them in persuading shareholders to stick with their strategy of focusing on three core commodities of copper, diamonds and platinum after last week's surprise announcement that Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal had acquired the second-biggest stake in the group. Agarwal, whose proposal to merge his struggling Vedanta Resources with Anglo was rebuffed last year, has said that he prefers the miner's portfolio as it is. If Agarwal wins the support of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) - Anglo's biggest shareholder, which has voiced its disapproval of Anglo's strategy of selling assets - there could be a power struggle between Agarwal and Cutifani. The PIC owns a 14.5% stake in the miner, according to Bloomberg data. Last month, Cutifani scaled back the pace of the asset sales because commodity prices had improved, but then said the strategy to sell assets remained unchanged. Ben Davis, equity research...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.