” Unfortunately, Anglo American shareholders had a various view, and they thought there was more worth in the plan that their management wanted to execute. Therefore they carried on. And rather honestly, so have we.”
MacKenzie’s remarks came amid installing speculation that BHP might reanimate a quote after a Financial Times report that its president, Mike Henry, and its chief advancement officer, Catherine Raw, had travelled to South Africa to fulfill government officials.
The worldwide mining company BHP has “carried on” from its three unsuccessful efforts to take control of the competing Anglo American previously this year and will concentrate on other growth chances rather, its chair has said.
Shares in Anglo dropped 3.5% in early trading on Wednesday after the remarks, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100.
MacKenzie informed Wednesday’s AGM: “We made an approach to Anglo American earlier this year … we believed there was an opportunity here to develop something special and special, a little bit of a sort of a ‘one plus one equates to 3’ chance.
The proposals were described as “extremely intricate and unappealing” by Anglo, which is a household name in South Africa and counts the government as one of its biggest investors.
BHP had its third deal of ₤ 39bn turned down by Anglo board members in Might after desperate talks over restructuring the 107-year-old company collapsed.
The five-week pursuit of the company met a block over BHP’s plans to sell some of Anglo’s South African service interests as part of the takeover. This consisted of the sale of Kumba Iron Ore and Anglo American Platinum, major companies in South Africa.
MacKenzie pointed to BHP’s current ₤ 3.46 bn ($4.5 bn) joint venture with the Canadian attire Lundin Mining to purchase the South American-focused company Filo Corp as evidence that it was pursuing new opportunities. Filo Corp has a number of large copper mines in Chile and Argentina.
MacKenzie confirmed at the conference that the company was a little ahead of its 2030 target.
At the conference, more than 91% of investors voted to back BHP’s environment action transition strategy, which intends to decrease functional emissions by 30% from 2020 by 2030 and accomplish net zero by 2050.
Speaking at BHP’s annual general meeting in Brisbane on Wednesday, Ken MacKenzie suggested the Australian miner would not be reanimating its bid for its London-based rival after a six-month block on trying once again raises at the end of November.
