BHP (ASX: BHP) has withdrawn its proposal to buy Anglo American (LON: AAL) after the takeover target rejected early on Wednesday the world’s largest miner’s request to extend talks, and said that while it believes its bid was “compelling”, the company is committed to a “disciplined approach” to mergers and acquisitions.
“BHP will not be making a firm offer for Anglo American,” chief executive Mark Henry said in a statement published minutes before the 5 p.m. UK time deadline for the mining giant to make a formal bid. “While we believed that our proposal for Anglo American was a compelling opportunity to effectively grow the pie of value for both sets of shareholders, we were unable to reach agreement with Anglo American on our specific views in respect of South African regulatory risk and cost,” Henry noted.
Anglo’s refusal earlier in the day argued that BHP had failed to address its concerns over the “highly complex and unattractive structure” of the proposed deal. Analysts had warned that Anglo’s denial of BHP’s requested deadline extension indicated the mega deal was likely to be cancelled. RBC said in a note to investors on Wednesday the proposed $49.2 billion (£38.6bn) takeover structure is too complex for BHP to go hostile.
For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/bhp-anglo-49bn-in-jeopardy-after-deadline-extension-denied/