JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) expects its demerger from parent company Anglo American to be completed next year and is planning a secondary listing in London, its CEO said on Monday.
Amplats, which reported first half results, also said it had cut some 3,700 jobs to reduce spending ahead of the demerger.
Meeting cost targets and the unbundling plan are crucial for efforts by Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad to restructure the wider group – after fending off a $49 billion takeover bid from rival mining giant BHP Group.
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Amplats CEO Craig Miller said the standalone business would have brighter prospects.
“The planned demerger will create a more focused, independent global leader in the PGM industry,” Miller said, adding that a secondary listing would diversify its investors.
Amplats’ profit fell 18% to 6.5 billion rand ($355.4 million) in the six months to June 30, while it declared a dividend of 9.75 rand per share, amounting to a total of 2.6 billion rand, in the first-half.
The wider Anglo group is due to report first half results on July 25, with investors hoping for a progress update.
Anglo has been battling an underground fire at one of its Australian coal mines since June 29, which could affect the way investors value the assets. Anglo’s sale of the coal assets is seen by investors as instrumental to raising capital.
“Anglo’s main problem this reporting period will be with the coal operations and how it will sell a burning coal mine,” said Ian Woodley, a portfolio manager at Old Mutual.
A spokesperson for Anglo said the coal assets sale had attracted strong demand from various investors.
“The sale process is well under way and there is strong interest in this world class set of steelmaking coal assets from a large number of parties,” the spokesperson said.
($1 = 18.2898 rand)
(Reporting by Felix Njini and Melanie Burton; Additional reporting by Nelson Banya and Clara Denina; Editing by Louise Heavens, David Goodman and Alexander Smith)
