BHP makes US$39-billion offer for rival Anglo American in bid to create world’s biggest copper producer – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – April 26, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Global mining companies’ lunge for copper, a critical transition metal to a low-carbon future, has intensified with BHP Group Ltd.’s unsolicited proposal to buy rival Anglo American PLC for about US$39-billion ($53-billion). Competing offers are expected.

The offer marks a return to the megadeals that transformed the mining industry in the first and second decades of this century. If successful, it would be the biggest takeover since Glencore PLC’s US$90-billion merger with Xstrata, which owned Canada’s Falconbridge nickel miner, in 2013.

Based in Melbourne, BHP is the world’s biggest mining company and is led by Mike Henry, who is Canadian and has been chief executive officer since the start of 2020. If BHP’s offer is accepted, the company would emerge as the world’s top producer of copper, up from third-largest, according to RBC Capital Markets.

For the rest of this column: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-bhp-group-anglo-american-offer-copper/