“Definitely, in terms of business plans and the way we think about the markets, there is no way ‘high and dry’ could be applied to it,” Wanblad said. “It won’t have a lazy balance sheet, but it won’t be overworked given the capital structure taken on. It was a very thoughtful process and I’m very proud it ended up with the capital structure.”
Anglo will retain a 19.9% stake in Amplats after the demerger, which will also see Amplats take a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Both the listing and residual stake are intended to minimise flowback of Amplats shares from investors not mandated to hold the stock once it becomes a standalone entity.
As Anglo’s stake in Amplats is noncore it raises the question of whether more bookbuilds are planned — Anglo last year raised R16.8bn by reducing its 79% stake — or an outright sale to a third party. Whatever route is taken, the Anglo stake could act as an overhang.
“The intention is to sell down the stake over time but we are also very cognisant that it needs to be at the right time and in the right way so that it works for all shareholders,” Wanblad said. “A lot of its shareholders will have been Anglo American shareholders.”
LSE comings and goings
As for Amplats’s secondary listing, it will probably come as cold comfort to UK investors who learnt this month that Glencore is the latest mining giant considering a move away from the City, probably to the US, though Sydney remains a possibility. Glencore CEO Gary Nagle acknowledged at the firm’s annual results presentation that the deeper pools of capital in the US were an attraction.
It’s becoming a crisis for the LSE, which is losing its mining behemoths.
BHP ditched its dual structure and London listing in 2022 and Randgold Resources left following its Barrick Gold merger. At Rio Tinto, activist shareholder Palliser Capital recently demanded the Anglo-Australian group take a leaf out of BHP’s book and end its dual listing as it would save Rio Tinto shareholders an estimated $50bn. The group urged shareholders to reject Palliser’s proposal.
Asked if Anglo had weighed up other listing options, Wanblad said: “We’ve never had the thought that this jurisdiction doesn’t work for us. But I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about this as the focus has been on our transformation and all that goes into that.”
A version of this article first appeared in the Financial Mail.
