Anglo American Plc (AAL) has sold South African Scaw Metals Group for 3.4 billion rand ($440 million) to an investment consortium marking completion of its divesment strategy from the steelmaker.
Industrial Development Corp., a state-owned lender, and consortium of black economic empowerment (BEE) investors including Shanduka Resources (Pty) Ltd., a company founded by billionaire businessman and former politician and union leader Cyril Ramaphosa, with interests in Glencore International Plc. (GLEN) purchased the unit.
Having completed the sale of Moly-Cop and AltaSteel – Scaw’s operations in Chile and Canada – in January last year for $1.08 billion, the company has also sold paper, zinc and sugar assets as it builds iron-ore, copper and nickel mines in South America to benefit from soaring prices for the minerals. According to Anglo Chief Executive Officer Cynthia Carroll, the Scaw disposal brings non-core asset sales since 2010 to $3.7 billion.
Analysts welcomed the deal as a positive, with Liberum placing the total Scaw proceeds as equivalent to 6.6 times 2010 core earnings, the last year of Scaw’s full contribution, Reuters reports.
Anglo shares went up 0.5 percent at 2.307 pence, in line with the broader UK mining sector.
Anglo has sold other non-core assets over the past two years including its zinc portfolio, sold to India-focused miner Vedanta, Tarmac’s European business and undeveloped Australian coal assets.
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