Anglo American unveils hiring freeze amid restructuring plans
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More news: According to sources cited by Reuters, Anglo American has suspended hiring globally, as it begins to undertake a large-scale restructuring announced on Tuesday.
The restructuring was unveiled by Anglo as it rejected consecutive takeover bids from Australia’s BHP Group over the past week. Anglo’s proposal will see it spin-off its less profitable coal, nickel, diamond and platinum businesses, while refocusing on copper, iron ore and crop nutrients.
The hiring freeze was announced to the company via an internal memo, which read: "Following yesterday's announcement of our plans to unlock significant value through a simplification of our portfolio […] it is appropriate that we put in place a freeze on the recruitment of all non site-based permanent employees and contractors across all Businesses and Group Functions," people and organisation director Monique Carter wrote.
The memo said that Anglo will honour commitments to candidates who have been made a formal written offer, but no new offers will be made.
Roughly half of Anglo’s 60,000-person workforce is based in South Africa.
Mike Henry says shareholders must choose between BHP and Anglo management
More news: Speaking at a conference in Miami on Tuesday, BHP CEO Mike Henry said that it is up to investors to decide on whether the BHP or Anglo American management team will be better positioned to reap value from the companies’ respective restructuring plans.
Anglo has argued that BHP’s requirement to spin off Anglo’s South African assets ahead of the takeover was not feasible. However, Henry claimed that Anglo’s own plans (announced on Tuesday) to spin off its platinum unit is “a pretty clear indicator that it is doable.”
“Shareholders must decide which plan creates the greatest value, soonest,” Henry said. “Which team has the better track record of execution.”
Anglo American exits platinum and diamond business amid BHP bid
The news: Anglo American will demerge from its platinum and diamond businesses to focus on its copper and iron ore arms.
The context: While in the midst of fending off takeover offers from BHP, most recently on Monday night, the mining company has announced that it will demerge from Anglo American Platinum and De Beers.
It also said it would divest from steelmaking coal — it owns five mines in Queensland — and is exploring options for care and maintenance and divestment from nickel.
Anglo American said it wants to focus on copper, iron ore and crop nutrients. However, it added that it will slow down development on crop nutrients in its fertiliser Anglo American Woodsmith business to support balance sheet deleveraging. It plans to reduce capex for the asset to USD200 million ($302.99 million) in 2025 and have no capex in 2026.
Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad said the change in focus marked a “major new phase in executing our strategy”.
He noted that its businesses in South America and Southern Africa were its most valuable and most valued.
What they said: “We expect that a radically simpler business will deliver sustainable incremental value creation through a step change in operational performance and cost reduction,” Wanblad said.
“... These actions represent the most radical changes to Anglo American in decades. I believe these are the right decisions to position Anglo American to capitalise on the outstanding resource endowment opportunities within our portfolio today.
“... By implementing these portfolio changes ourselves, we will be able to do so in a manner that is respectful of our employees, host communities and countries, including ensuring that in South Africa in particular Anglo American continues to play its role as a responsible business leader to support the country’s national priorities.
“We are taking clear and decisive action to deliver value – safely, responsibly and reliably – in the long term interests of our shareholders and other stakeholders, and to deliver the products that are so critical to enabling the energy transition and supporting improved global living standards and food security.”
The source: Anglo American media release
