Anglo to sell off assets in restructuring
ANGLO AMERICAN, the resources group which owns stakes in the biggest diamond and platinum producers in the world, has unveiled massive restructuring plans in a bid to focus on mining.
Anglo said it was reorganising into seven arms, whose directors will report straight to chief executive Cynthia Carroll. Ian Cockerill, boss of the miner’s coal unit, and executives Philip Baum and Russell King have left the company as part of the overhaul.
The miner also said it was selling off a range of its assets including steel manufacturing arm Scaw Metals, Catalão – which produces a metal used in jet engines and MRI scanners – and fertilizer producer Copebrás.
Anglo, which is eager to prove to shareholders it can provide good value after rejecting an all-share merger offer from rival Xstrata, wants to expand production at its core assets, including the Brazilian Minas-Rio iron ore mine.
The group said it expects the streamlining measures to see 25 per cent of overhead staff axed, with savings of $120m a year.
Meanwhile, the group said its third-quarter copper output went up 13.4 per cent from a year earlier to 168,500 metric tonnes. It added that output of thermal coal slipped by one per cent and metallurgical coal output fell 2.6 per cent.
Its Kumba Iron Ore unit, the continent’s biggest producer of the metal, boosted production and exports in the third quarter, and said it was on track to lift annual output by 10 per cent.