The boss of Anglo American has insisted that the 108-year old miner will retain its primary listing in London despite moving its headquarters to Vancouver, after agreeing the second largest merger in the sector’s history.
Under the terms of the $50 billion deal, the new group – Anglo Teck – will move its headquarters to Vancouver from London, putting about 400 jobs at risk in Anglo’s head office, but will retain its primary listing in the UK, with secondary listings in Johannesburg, Toronto and New York.
Duncan Wanblad, Anglo’s chief executive, said the rationale for retaining its main stock market quote in the UK was “simply that London markets are very deep”.
“As a major FTSE 100 company for many years, London provides great continuity as our primary listing given the market’s global status for mining capital,” the South African chief executive said.
Shareholders in the UK and North American each account for about 30 per cent of the group’s register.
• The De Beers man with rough diamond cufflinks and a storm on his hands
London’s place as a hub for natural resources has come under growing strain as activist investors have heaped pressure on the world’s largest miners to shift their primary listings overseas.
The deal was touted by Jonathan Price, Teck’s Welsh chief executive as a “true merger of equals in form and function”, but Anglo shareholders will own 62.4 per cent of the enlarged company, with Teck shareholders owning the rest.
Duncan Wanblad will lead the combined company
WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Wanblad, 58, will lead the enlarged company, with Price taking up the role of deputy chief executive. Anglo finance chief John Heasley will be the group’s chief financial officer and Teck’s Sheila Murray will be chair.
The combination will create the world’s fifth-largest copper producer, with an annual output of 1.2 million tonnes, and annual pre-tax synergies of about $800 million are expected.
Estimates of synergies looked conservative, George Cheveley, a portfolio manager at Ninety One, a top 15 shareholder in Anglo, said. “What they don’t include is the optionality that you get with such a huge asset once combined, the ability to further expand it, combined infrastructure, workforce, automation.”
Price, 49, said the deal was “highly complementary” and would “create a leading global critical minerals champion headquartered in Canada”.
Jonathan Price will be the deputy chief executive
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A deal will hinge on securing approvals from antitrust regulators, but should take between 12 and 18 months to complete, the companies said. Shareholders are expected to vote on the deal before the end of the year.
The deal comes as Anglo is in the middle of a radical restructuring of its operations, set out by Wanblad in May last year in an effort to fend off a £39 billion takeover approach from BHP, the world’s largest miner.
The company is aiming to sell or spin-off non-core businesses such as coal and nickel, as well as De Beers, its trophy diamonds business, to focus on copper and iron ore mining. It has already demerged its platinum division. The company has also slowed the development of its Woodsmith polyhalite fertiliser mine in North Yorkshire.
A copper mine in northern Chile.
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Teck rejected a $22.5 billion bid from Glencore in 2023, with the Swiss commodities house eventually agreeing to buy the Canadian’s group’s steelmaking coal business.
“As far as De Beers is concerned, we continue as per the original programme in the process of doing either a divestment or a demerger, but with the divestment looking more likely,” Wanblad said.
The Woodsmith mine was “very much part of our future”, he added.
Anglo’s shares closed 182p, or 8 per cent, higher at £24.65 in London, while Teck Resources shares rose $5.24, or 14.9 per cent to $40.35 as the market opened in Toronto.