The chairman of Anglo American has promised to meet with shareholders to discuss an imminent battle over the acquisition of the mining company.
City grandee Stuart Chambers, who has sold blue-chip companies, said yesterday he will hold talks with the company’s top 30 investors.
Anglo last week rejected a £25 per share offer from rival BHP.
The bid valued Anglo at £31bn, but the London-listed company said the bid was opportunistic and undervalued it.
Australian giant BHP, which is the world’s largest listed mining group, is considering a higher bid for Anglo.
Takeover battle: Anglo American chairman Stuart Chambers, who is selling blue-chip companies, said yesterday he will hold talks with the company’s top 30 investors.
City experts have said BHP’s approach could start a bidding war as competitors eye Anglo’s copper mines in Peru and Chile.
Glencore and Rio Tinto are potential rival bidders, analysts have said.
Asked about a possible takeover at Anglo’s annual general meeting in the City, Chambers told shareholders: “It’s not the board that decides, it’s you.”
One shareholder thanked Chambers for rejecting “the comical offer” from BHP, saying he valued the company at £41 a share.
However, Chambers, 67, has been criticized for his history of selling other big-name companies while he was in charge.
He oversaw the £26bn sale of Cambridge-based chipmaker Arm to Japanese investor Softbank in 2016.
Arm snubbed London and chose New York for its listing when it relisted last year.
He was also chairman of FTSE 100 drinks can maker Rexam when it was bought by US rival Ball Corporation in 2015.
And he was chief executive of glass maker Pilkington when it was sold to Japan’s Nippon Sheet Glass in 2005.
Mining companies want to increase their copper production capacity to take advantage of growing demand. The metal is used in everything from automobiles to electrical networks and construction.
Analysts expect a copper shortage this year as demand grows as it is crucial to the energy transition. Copper prices hit a two-year high yesterday due to tight supply.
Meanwhile, Glencore said its total copper production was about 239,700 metric tons in the first quarter, down 2 percent from a year earlier. In an update to investors, Glencore left its full-year production forecast unchanged.
But profits from its business unit are expected to be at the top end of annual guidance between £2.4bn and £2.8bn this year.
Russ Mould, investment director at brokerage AJ Bell, said: ‘It’s fair to say Glencore is one of the most ambitious companies in the mining sector. Glencore wants to be the biggest and the best.”