Diamond rings are displayed on a cabinet at a De Beers store in Hong Kong, China, Thursday, September 14, 2017. market, Chief Executive Bruce Cleaver said in an interview. Photographer: Calvin Sit/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Anglo American Plans to spin off its venerable De Beers diamond unit as part of a sweeping restructuring of its 107-year-old business to fend off a steady stream of takeover bids from mining rivals BHP Group.
The British miner said in a statement statement On Tuesday, De Beers could be spun off or spun off to “increase strategic flexibility.”
The company also plans to sell its steelmaking coal, nickel and platinum businesses as part of an accelerated strategic overhaul following an asset review in 2023.
The company’s shares were down 3.2% as of 10:10 a.m. London time.
Chief executive Duncan Wanblad said the restructuring represented “the most radical transformation of Anglo American in decades” and would help streamline the business and deliver greater value to shareholders.
“We expect that the business becoming simpler will lead to sustainable incremental value creation through incremental changes in operating performance and cost reductions,” Wanblad said.
He added: “Anglo American shareholders will see the full undiluted benefit of these broad changes, and the value of our copper and iron ore assets will be highlighted.”
The news comes just a day after Anglo American rejected a revised takeover bid from BHP Billiton. The Australian mining giant has been pursuing its British rival since late last month for a multibillion-dollar deal to produce the world’s largest copper miner.
Anglo American said on Monday that BHP’s 34 billion pound ($42.6 billion) offer – an increase from its previous offer of 31 billion pounds – continued to “significantly undervalue” the business and remained “highly unvalued” for shareholders. Attraction”.
De Beers, once the crown jewel of Anglo’s vast business, dominated the diamond market in both volume and public psychology thanks to the enduring success of its “Diamonds Are Forever” marketing campaign in the 1940s.
In recent years, however, the rise of lab-grown diamonds has put the market under pressure as consumers increasingly turn to lower-cost alternatives to synthetic diamonds.
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