Anglo’s Cutifani confirms plan to dispose of coal assets in less than five years

ANGLO American CEO, Mark Cutifani, gave the strongest indication yet of the group’s approach to its thermal coal assets saying it would own them for only five more years “… and probably less than that”.

Anglo has said in the past it would seek a “just transition” for its coal mines – both in Colombia and South Africa – in order to allow for an orderly change in ownership with little to no disruption to jobs.

Now, Cutifani has been more specific saying the group was looking at options for the coal mines with a view to providing more information at the time of its Sustainability Report which is due to be published in April.

Asked by Energymx if these options could include ‘spinning off’ the coal mines in a separately-listed vehicle or whether the group would opt for a straight-forward sale of the assets, Cutifani responded: “Both of those options and probably others”.

“Anglo has streamlined itself many times before. What we believe is that the South African government still needs thermal coal. But whatever we do needs to be sensitive and we need to make sure they [the assets] are in the right hands.”

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