SOUTH African mines and energy minister may have warmed towards the unbundling of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).
Asked by Bloomberg News what he thought of plans by Anglo American to unbundle its 79% shareholding in the platinum group metals miner, Mantashe said: “It is their strategy and they must do anything that will optimise value”.
This is not the view he held of BHP’s plans to do the same with Amplats. In terms of two takeover proposal for Anglo American on April 24 and May 7, BHP also proposed Amplats’ unbundling and that of Kumba Iron Ore, in which Anglo has a 70% stake.
Then Mantashe expressed his disaffection for BHP saying the company had “never done much” for South Africa except to divest, leaving the country with the “marginal” South32.
Duncan Wanblad, CEO of Anglo said earlier today in detailing his firm’s restructuring plans that BHP had been disrespectful to the South African government.
“I would have not announced this right now, just a bit later … because it would have been completely disrepectful to the South African government to announce this in the middle of elections,” said Wanblad.
The demerger of Amplats would be done “in a responsible and orderly way”, said Wanblad who also announced Anglo would sell or demerge De Beers in which it has an 85% stake as well as look to divest from its metallurgical coal mines in Australia.
Despite Wanblad’s comments shares in Amplats fell 8% on the JSE with an hour of trade remaining. “The spinoff may trigger an upheaval” among stakeholders as some Anglo shareholders could be reluctant to hold Amplats shares, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Emmanuel Munjeri and Grant Sporre wrote in a note to clients.
