Proactive Investors - After rebuffing a second bid from BHP yesterday, Anglo American (JO:AGLJ) has today set out plans for a major rejig of its portfolio, including selling off its De Beers diamond business and other units.
The FTSE 100 company said it would divest its steelmaking coal business, "responding to strong buyer interest"; demerge De Beers and Anglo American Platinum "in a responsible and orderly way", and look at options for care and maintenance or divestment of the nickel unit.
It plans to retain "optionality" at the Woodsmith fetiliser mine in north Yorkshire, but will slow investment.
CEO Duncan Wanblad said in the statement: "We expect that a radically simpler business will deliver sustainable incremental value creation through a step change in operational performance and cost reduction."
FTSE 100 expected to extend losses
The FTSE 100 is tipped to continue its retreat for a second day on Tuesday, as new UK jobs numbers indicated further cooling.
Spread-better have predicted London's equity benchmark will fall around nine points, having dropped 18.77 yesterday to end at 8,414.99.
Overnight, Wall Street had a mixed close, with the Dow Jones down 0.2%, the S&P 500 flat and the Nasdaq up 0.3%.
Asian markets are also mixed this morning, with Chinese indices flat but the Nikkei and Sensex in green.
The UK Office for National Statistics has published the latest jobs market update, showing the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in March, as expected, from 4.2% before.
Average weekly earnings rose 5.7% in the three months to March, higher than expected but the same as the revises number for the previous three-month period.
Excluding bonuses wages remained up 6.0%.
We’ve published the latest UK labour market figures.Headline indicators for the UK labour market for January to March 2024 show:
· employment was 74.5%
· unemployment was 4.3%
· economic inactivity was 22.1%
Read Labour market overview ➡️ https://t.co/2O7qcvRfkz pic.twitter.com/lgM8rmC07j
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) May 14, 2024