A fresh take-over approach by Australia’s BHP Group for London-listed mining rival Anglo American has been abandoned – just 18 months after its last ill-fated attempt to snap up the firm.
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BHP confirmed it had held “preliminary discussions” with Anglo American about a possible bid but said late on Sunday it was “no longer considering a combination of the two companies.”
“Whilst BHP continues to believe that a combination with Anglo American would have had strong strategic merits and created significant value for all stakeholders, BHP is confident in the highly compelling potential of its own organic growth strategy,” said a BHP spokesperson.
It is thought that Anglo had rejected the latest approach from BHP, which would have thwarted the agreed mega-merger between Anglo and Canadian rival Teck Resources. Anglo is just weeks away from a shareholder vote on the Teck tie-up, which will create one of the world’s largest copper producers with a combined value of close to £40 billion.
The Teck deal will see Anglo move its headquarters away from London, with the combined group to be led out of Vancouver in Canada, although it will retain corporate offices in the UK and Johannesburg, South Africa.
If the merger goes ahead the new firm – to be called Anglo Teck – will keep its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with secondary listings in Toronto, South Africa and New York. The deal is billed as a “merger of equals”, though Anglo shareholders will own about 62.4% of the merged company and Teck the remaining 37.6%.
BHP’s previous near £39 billion proposal for Anglo ended in May last year as the pair were unable to reach an agreement over specific issues. A deal between the two companies would have created the biggest copper miner in the world, with 10% of global output.
Anglo’s vast reserves of copper are a key driver of the interest in the business, as the mineral is an important building block for low-carbon technologies such as solar farms and electric cars.
Earlier in 2024, Anglo announced plans to break up major parts of the business and heavily slow down its development of a £7 billion North Yorkshire fertiliser mine.