Recovering Anglo American sticks to asset sales, but with less haste
The miner is now the best-performing blue chip on the London Stock Exchange and shareholders want it to get top prices for its bulk commodities business
London — Shares in Anglo American are up more than 200% this year, like prices of the coking coal it mines, and yet the group is sticking to an overhaul accelerated when commodity markets were rock bottom and it was in deep trouble. Now that Anglo American is the best-performing blue chip on the London Stock Exchange and some minerals have rebounded, shareholders want the company to achieve top prices as it sells swathes of its bulk commodities business under a strategy of concentrating on high-value minerals. The global miner hatched the strategy three years ago. However, it needed to speed up the asset sales and job cuts last year, when its shares dived 75% as investors worried about the group’s ability to cope with a heavy debt burden during the commodity slump. Since last December’s announcement that Anglo American would offload three-fifths of its assets and focus on diamonds, platinum and copper, the rally in bulk commodity prices has transformed the market mood. Bulk commodit...
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