- Anglo chief executive Duncan Wanblad put the division up for sale last week.
Glencore is understood to be among potential bidders surrounding mining giant Anglo American’s coking coal business.
Anglo chief executive Duncan Wanblad put the division up for sale last week after fending off three takeover attempts by bigger rival BHP.
He is eager to act quickly to win shareholder support for his strategy of downsizing the 107-year-old company.
Bidder: Glencore is understood to be among the potential bidders surrounding mining giant Anglo American’s coking coal business.
The overhaul of Wanblad will allow Anglo to focus on its lucrative copper and iron ore businesses.
Coking coal is used in steelmaking and Anglo works on several mines, development projects and joint ventures in Australia.
Glencore also has several coal operations in Australia.
Wanblad said there had already been “interest” in the deal since it laid out its plans to secure the future Anglo company in mid-May.
It intends to sell the five mines in Queensland as a single unit rather than individually.
The division of the company will focus on the spin-off, first, of the coking coal and nickel units, and then of its platinum division in South Africa. Last in line will likely be the spin-off of De Beers, the world’s most prestigious diamond company.
Diamond prices in particular have struggled in recent years, in part due to the growing popularity of lab-grown stones.
De Beers could list its shares on the London stock market, where they could be valued at £4 billion or more. Anglo could also list its £7bn platinum division on the UK stock market, Wanblad has said.
An engineer by training, Wanblad has spent more than 30 years in the industry and most of that at Anglo, where he took up the role of chief executive in 2022.
It shocked the stock market late last year when the group made radical revisions to its plans for most of the company’s divisions, causing a huge drop in the share price and sparking rumors that the group had become in an acquisition target.
Over six weeks in April and May, BHP submitted three bids for Anglo, the highest valuing it at £39bn.
A merger would have created the world’s largest copper miner. Copper is a fundamental metal for the green transition, particularly in technology such as electric cars.
Anglo shares plummeted when the deal fell through and it is now valued at £34bn. BHP’s market value is £118bn.
Coal companies are considered controversial by environmentally concerned investors. Coking (or metallurgical) coal is used to make steel from scratch in blast furnaces.
Demand is expected to slow in the West, where steelmakers are building electric furnaces that recycle existing steel, seen as a greener alternative. But many countries will need blast furnaces for decades to come.
Anglo American and Glencore declined to comment.
