[miningmx.com] – MARK Cutifani is likely to hear familiar arguments for the unbundling of South Africa assets when he takes the helm at Anglo American, said BDLive which cited two UK stockbrokers.
For years, Cutifani has resisted shareholder pressure to unbundle the mines of AngloGold Ashanti where he is CEO until April 3. He has said in the past that unbundling remains an option, but he has never put it into action.
According to BDLive in an article that first appeared in Business Times, shareholders in the UK want him to split the platinum mines in Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) from Anglo American. Anglo owns 77.3% of Amplats.
“We would like to see Anglo’s Achilles heel, platinum, divested either on its own or as part of a total divestment of South Africa,” BDLive quoted London-based Bernstein Research to have said.
“This would improve the group’s overall country risk exposure, and allow it to focus on more profitable metals and regions. The resultant ‘core’ Anglo American would be an attractive merger target for either Rio Tinto or ‘Glenstrata’ [a reference to the proposed merger between Glencore and Xstrata].”
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said: “We think a break-up of Anglo American into a South African and non-South African vehicle could release value by removing the South African overhang from the group’s international assets.”
