JOHANNESBURG – Anglo American's biggest shareholder, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), will meet with the company next week to discuss whether its plans to sell more than half of its mines including South African coal and iron-ore assets is the best option for the country.
The PIC, which oversees the pension funds of South African government workers and owns about 14.5% of Anglo, wants the sale plan put to a shareholder vote because it’s concerned that selling mines after commodity prices plunged would not realize the full value of the assets, said Deon Botha, the Pretoria-based PIC’s head of corporate affairs.
If the sale plan does go ahead, the PIC would prefer the creation of a new company from the South African assets and would want that company’s portfolio to include some of the platinum mines currently held by Anglo, Botha said in an e-mailed response to questions. The PIC doesn’t favor the sale of the assets as single mines, he said.
Anglo is seeking to sell the assets as part of wider restructuring of the business after it spent $14-billion buying and building an iron-ore mine in Brazil that it may now dispose of because of plunging prices. The century-old firm plans to exit iron ore and coal and focus on diamonds, platinum and copper. CEO Mark Cutifani has repeatedly insisted that the company is not running a firesale and will rebuff offers that do not meet expectations.
Anglo wants to cut debt to below $10-billion by the end of the year.