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You never know these days whether you’re prey or predator - Tony Trahar, Anglo American CEO
In an interview on Radio 2000 @ 18:00 on Friday, 4 August 2006
[miningmx.com] -- [miningmx.com] -- ANGLO American had no plans to divest of its remaining 41.8% stake in AngloGold Ashanti soon amid a thriving gold market, said Tony Trahar, Anglo American CEO.
"We will look at all options over the next few years as to how we reduce that stake further. We’re in no hurry. AngloGold is doing very well with a more bullish gold outlook," Trahar said. He was speaking on the Moneyweb Power Hour.
Earlier this year, Anglo American sold a tranche of AngloGold Ashanti shares for about $1bn taking its stake down from about 51%.
Trahar said speculation that Anglo American might become a target for another mining company was "not impossible".
"You never know these days whether you’re prey or predator. We’re a big group, $50bn, $60bn group. There’s a lot of
liquidity around in the world.
"There are lots of people looking for opportunities. There’s lots of cash-rich countries and companies, oil countries.
"It's not impossible, but our job is to keep the share price high and make it as difficult as possible by making sure we’re fully valued.
Meanwhile, Trahar said a partnership with Shell to develop a coal-to-liquids (oil) business would complement the group's coal arm which was driving future growth for the company.
"I think it's an exciting new area for us, in addition to the growth we see through our coal mining business, to have a coal energy or coal downstream business alongside that.
"And we’ve got to put capacity in alongside gold mining to execute that," Trahar said.
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