BHP has “moved on” from Anglo, says chairman

Ken Mackenzie, chairman of BHP Group Ltd., speaks during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg via Getty Images

BHP has shifted its focus to other growth opportunities following its failed bid for Anglo American, the group’s chairman has said.

Commenting at the Melbourne-headquartered group’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, Ken MacKenzie was quoted by Reuters as saying that instead of merging with BHP, Anglo wanted to focus on its own restructuring plan and had moved on … as BHP had done.

“We made an approach to Anglo American earlier this year … we thought there was an opportunity here to create something unique and special, a bit of a sort of a one plus one equals three opportunity,” Reuters cited MacKenzie as saying.

“Unfortunately, Anglo American shareholders had a different view, and they thought there was more value in the plan that their management wanted to execute. And so they moved on. And quite frankly, so have we.”

Mackenzie’s comments come weeks before a block on making another offer expires, but they echo the words of Vandita Pant, the group’s CEO who told the FT Mining Summit in September that “we have moved on” when asked about her attitude to renewing an offer for Anglo.

This hasn’t prevented speculation BHP will make another run at Anglo, however.

On October 17, the FT reported that Mike Henry, CEO of BHP, and chief development officer Catherine Raw had met government officials in South Africa during the previous week.

The BHP executives also met with South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, the state-owned asset manager, which is Anglo’s second largest shareholder with a 7.5% stake, according to the report.

“The consensus view is that they are coming back, if they can figure it out,” one banker said. Another said it was an “open secret” that BHP was considering whether to make a bid.

The world’s biggest miner walked away from a $49bn bid to acquire Anglo in May after it was rebuffed three times.

MacKenzie pointed to BHP’s $3.25bn deal with Canada-listed Lundin Mining in July to jointly take over developer Filo Corp in a move to grow their copper holdings in South America.

“In our opinion, a renewed approach by BHP is unlikely before the spin out of Amplats as this materially reduced the complexity of the transaction and the ‘structure’ issues flagged by the Anglo board,” said UBS in an investment report last week.

At the AGM, a vote for BHP’s climate action transition plan was supported by 91.77% of shareholders, despite some investors including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund recommending a vote against the resolution due to a lack of details on the timing and scale of its emissions reduction plans, said Reuters.

BHP is slightly ahead of its target of reducing operational emissions by at least 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, MacKenzie said. Its long-term goal is to achieve net zero operational emissions by 2050, said Reuters.