Anglo American’s Biggest Shareholder Wants Vote on Sale Plan – by Loni Prinsloo, Paul Burkhardt and Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – September 1, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Anglo American Plc’s biggest shareholder, South Africa’s Public Investment Corp., will meet with the company next week to discuss whether its plan to sell more than half of its mines including local coal and iron-ore assets is the best option for the country.

The PIC, which owns about 14.5 percent of Anglo, wants the sale plan put to a shareholder vote because it’s concerned that selling mines after commodity prices plunged wouldn’t realize the full value of the assets, said Deon Botha, the Pretoria-based PIC’s head of corporate affairs. The PIC oversees South African government workers’ pension funds among the $123 billion in assets it holds.

If the disposal plan does go ahead, the PIC would prefer that the coal, iron ore and manganese mines up for sale be bundled with some of Anglo’s platinum mines, Botha said. The PIC doesn’t favor the sale of the assets as single mines, he said.

Anglo has previously said its platinum division, Anglo American Platinum Ltd., is core to the group, along with diamonds and copper.

“We are considering a number of options for divestment, whether as individual assets or as packages of assets, but will only divest for value and in the interests of all our shareholders,” Pranill Ramchander, a spokesman for Anglo in Johannesburg, said by e-mail.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-01/anglo-american-s-biggest-shareholder-wants-vote-on-sales-plan-iske9dz0