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Anglo American

Anglo American’s Biggest Shareholder Wants Vote on Sale Plan – by Loni Prinsloo, Paul Burkhardt and Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – September 1, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Anglo American Plc’s biggest shareholder, South Africa’s Public Investment Corp., will meet with the company next week to discuss whether its plan to sell more than half of its mines including local coal and iron-ore assets is the best option for the country.

The PIC, which owns about 14.5 percent of Anglo, wants the sale plan put to a shareholder vote because it’s concerned that selling mines after commodity prices plunged wouldn’t realize the full value of the assets, said Deon Botha, the Pretoria-based PIC’s head of corporate affairs. The PIC oversees South African government workers’ pension funds among the $123 billion in assets it holds.

If the disposal plan does go ahead, the PIC would prefer that the coal, iron ore and manganese mines up for sale be bundled with some of Anglo’s platinum mines, Botha said. The PIC doesn’t favor the sale of the assets as single mines, he said.

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Glencore, Anglo Rally Loses Steam as Miners Deliver on Debt Cuts – by Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – August 23, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Rescue plans unveiled by embattled mining companies Glencore Plc and Anglo American Plc in the past year have won over investors. Yet a rally in the stocks is stalling this month.

Glencore is barely changed in August and Anglo is up less than 4 percent after they more than doubled in the year through July. For Glencore, there are now fewer catalysts for gains as the Swiss company is closer to completing a $13 billion debt reduction plan, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst Alon Olsha, who downgraded the stock to neutral last week because of the rally.

The world’s biggest mining companies have sold assets, scrapped dividends, reined in spending, and in Glencore’s case sold $2.5 billion of stock, to cut debt loads that panicked investors last year as raw-materials prices collapsed. On Wednesday, Glencore investors will get an update on its progress toward a net-debt target of as low as $17 billion by the end of the year as it announces first-half profits.

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Anglo Fears Worst to Come as Commodities Rally Most Since Crisis – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – July 28, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Mark Cutifani is avoiding the temptation to feel complacent. The head of Anglo American Plc has seen the miner’s share price almost triple this year, topping gains in the benchmark FTSE 100 Index. But that can’t erase the bad times Cutifani’s seen since becoming chief executive officer in 2013.

“We’re not convinced the worst is behind us,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Manus Cranny and Caroline Hyde on Thursday. “There will be pressure on supply right across the commodity suite.”

After a torrid 2015, when Anglo’s stock sank 75 percent, it has rebounded this year as raw materials rallied and management set out plans to exit iron ore and coal, and focus on more profitable diamonds, platinum and copper.

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BHP, Anglo see only slight setbacks for iron ore production – by James Regan and Barbar Lewis (Reuters U.S. – July 20, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY/LONDON – BHP Billiton and Anglo American have reported setbacks in their iron ore production, but analysts said the contraction was nowhere near enough to dent the massive global supply glut that has driven prices to record lows.

Overnight on Tuesday, BHP Billiton narrowly missed its iron ore output target in the financial year just ended following the Samarco disaster in Brazil, while Anglo American on Wednesday reduced its full-year production forecast in Brazil.

Anglo American’s shares were down 7.1 percent at 755.6 pence by 1149 GMT, when BHP’s shares in London were down 2.6 percent at 924.1 pence, in line with the FTSE-350 mining sector index.

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Mining houses pledge support for fight against HIV/Aids – by David Oliveira (MiningWeekly.com – July 18, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Major miners Anglo American and Harmony Gold have pledged their support for the United Nations’ HIV/Aids organisation UNAids’ global #ProTEST HIV campaign.

The campaign is aimed at positively contributing to the goal of ending HIV/Aids by 2030, by highlighting the importance of voluntary HIV testing, which is a critical intervention to help link care and support for those infected with HIV and other prevention programmes.

On the occasion of the twenty-first International AIDS Conference, being held at the Durban International Convention Centre, in KwaZulu-Natal, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani on Monday said the company’s partnership with UNAids would assist in achieving the first HIV-free generation by 2030.

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BHP, Glencore Said to Bid for Anglo’s Australian Coal Mines – by Brett Foley and Dinesh Nair (Bloomberg News – June 7, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Glencore Plc are among final bidders for Anglo American Plc’s Australian metallurgical coal assets that may fetch about $1.5 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Anemka Resources, the mining investor backed by Warburg Pincus, has also made a bid, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. and a pairing of Apollo Global Management LLC and Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC, submitted final bids for the Moranbah and Grosvenor mines by a June 6 deadline, as well, the people said.

Anglo American could reach an agreement for the mines as soon as this month, though no final decision has been made and talks could still fall apart, they said. Glencore may be bidding with a partner, one of the people said.

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UPDATE 2-Anglo American’s De Beers picks insider Cleaver as CEO (Reuters U.S. – May 27, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

BENGALURU/BRUSSELS, May 27 Anglo American Plc’s De Beers named insider Bruce Cleaver as chief executive of the diamond group, which the global mining company is counting on to help revive its fortunes.

Cleaver takes on the new role at a difficult time for De Beers as Diamond sales stagnated in 2015, hit by a weaker Chinese economy. However, producers are seeing scope for recovery, especially in the United States, which accounts for some 45 percent of demand.

Anglo American, which has an 85 percent stake in De Beers — the world’s largest diamond producer by value — is focusing on the diamond business after a restructuring. Cleaver, 51, was previously group director of strategy and business development at De Beers. He will take over the role on July 1, the company said on Friday.

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Best friends? Anglo keeps De Beers’ diamonds – by Philip Blenkinsop (Reuters Africa – May 19, 2016)

http://af.reuters.com/

ANTWERP (Reuters) – Mining group Anglo American has retained De Beers as a prize asset after a radical overhaul in the belief that surging Chinese and Indian demand for diamonds will outstrip dwindling supply even after a 2015 crunch.

The group, in which Anglo American has an 85 percent stake, has seen its market share fall from over 80 percent in the 1980s to about a third now, losing it control of supply and unleashing price volatility.

Its challenges are compounded by competition from synthetic diamonds and uncertain demand from customers in the “millennial” generation, aged roughly 18 to 34. Anglo has cut the value of De Beers assets in its books each year since 2012, after it had paid $5.1 billion for a 40 percent stake.

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Japanese duo bid for Anglo asset stake – by Brett Foley ad Ichiro Suzuki (Business Day/Bloomberg – May 3, 2016)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

MELBOURNE/TOKYO — Japanese trading houses Itochu and Mitsui have separately bid for a stake in Anglo American’s manganese assets in Australia and SA as the diversified mining house shrinks its business to weather the commodity-price rout, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Anglo was considering the offers for its 40% holding in a manganese joint venture with South32, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Perth-based South32 had an option to buy the stake, which may fetch as much as $700m, and might pre-empt an agreement with another party, one of the people said.

Anglo is seeking to raise about $4bn from selling mines including those that produce iron ore and coal, to cut debt after commodity prices slid. The London-based company, which is focusing on assets that produce diamonds, platinum and copper, agreed last week to sell its Brazilian niobium and phosphate businesses to China Molybdenum Company for $1.5bn in cash.

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Brazilian sale a coup for debt-laden Anglo – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day – April 29, 2016)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

ANGLO American made significant inroads into reaching its asset sales target this year by agreeing to sell its niobium and phosphate mining business in Brazil for $1.5bn in cash to China Molybdenum Company, as part of an intense asset sales process to cut debt and return the company to profit.

The sale is the single largest disposal by Anglo since it told the market in December and February of a major restructuring to raise $3bn-$4bn from asset disposals this year to cut net debt of $12.9bn to more manageable levels. Last year, Anglo raised $2.1bn in asset sales and it intends lifting that number as it narrows its focus to diamonds, platinum, and copper.

Anglo said on Thursday the sale of the profitable, yet low-key niobium and phosphate business in Brazil had been agreed and the final payment was subject to a number of closing and post-closing adjustments in the second half of this year.

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De Beers’s diamond sales sparkle – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day – April 13, 2016)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

DE BEERS, an Anglo American subsidiary, has notched up its third consecutive increase in rough diamond sales, with analysts forecasting a better-than-expected performance from what will be a major business in the Anglo stable.

Anglo has told the market it will focus on just 16 mines in diamonds, platinum, and copper, cutting its portfolio of 55 assets, as it strives to make inroads into about $13bn of debt, a number it wants to more than halve within four years.

De Beers, the world’s largest rough diamond producer by value, has undertaken a number of measures to correct a damaging market imbalance, with the cutting and polishing segment clogged with rough diamonds, a situation exacerbated by subdued diamond jewellery demand last year.

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Leaner and meaner: How miners are ready to deliver – by Stuart Theobald, Orin Thambo and Phibion Makuwerere (Mineweb.com/Moneyweb Investor – April 11, 2016)

http://www.mineweb.com/

An analysis of Anglo American, Kumba and Lonmin.

Are the good times back? The JSE’s mining index gained nearly 60% in the first 10 weeks of the year. Some shares – Anglo and the platinum producers among them – have nearly doubled investors’ money. That’s only a partial recovery – the index is still half what it reached in the pre-2008 financial crisis-driven crash. But it’s the first glimmer of light long-suffering shareholders have seen in their mining stocks since then.

The share price action has had thin real underlying drivers. There has been an uptick in commodity prices and the weak rand has helped. There does not seem to be any good reason to think the commodity bear market is over – there is still far too much supply around to meet demand – but the bottom of the cycle may be in sight.

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Anglo American Just Won’t Sell the Mines Rivals Really Want – by Agnieszka De Sousa and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – April 5, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

For Anglo American Plc, life would have to get a whole lot worse before it considers selling its best copper mines.

“We don’t need to sell them. Anglo is not in that position,” Hennie Faul, Anglo’s copper chief, said in an interview in Santiago, Chile on Monday. The entire industry would be in turmoil for Anglo to have to sell its prime assets, he said.

The century-old company is trying to engineer a turnaround by selling more than half its other mines and exiting the iron-ore and coal business to focus on its best assets — producers of diamonds, platinum and copper. Anglo wants to raise $4 billion from selling mines and reduce net debt to less than $10 billion this year.

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68% of the regional economy: That’s how much platinum contributes to Rustenberg – by Prinesha Naidoo (Mineweb.com – March 22, 2016)

http://www.mineweb.com/

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s big three platinum mining companies – Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin – appear to have made significant contributions to the Rustenberg area, in which they operate. But a new report by advisory firm, Eunomix, suggests more can be done to address the “underlying structural socio-economic problems” vexing the area.

According to the latest municipal data, compiled prior to the current bear market in commodities, mining contributed 68% to gross domestic product (GDP) and was responsible for 50% of direct jobs and 15% of indirect jobs in the area in 2011.

Citing data from the Integrated Reporting and Assurance Services’ Sustainability Data Transparency Index, Eunomix said the mining and metals sector is the largest contributor to corporate social investment and development expenditure in South Africa. A total of 33 companies in the sector reported a R3.9 billion contribution, equivalent to 46.4% of total expenditure.

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Glencore joins the mining world’s gruppetto – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – March 2, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg is said to be pretty passionate about cycling and its Grand Tours. So he would be well aware of the term “gruppetto”. It is the pack of riders that sits at the back of mountain stages with that aim of just finishing the day inside the time limit. They are sprinters looking just to survive until conditions better suit their skills.

Consolidation before and during the long mining boom crafted five diversified global miners: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vale, Glencore and Anglo American. By the end of a sectoral recession of rare severity, even in this most cyclical of industries, this group of five could be permanently trimmed to two giants and the rest.

The question right now is whether or not Glencore has the wherewithal or the will to join BHP and Rio Tinto in their break away from big mining’s rapidly withering peloton.

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