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Anglo American Plc said it’s agreed to sell its steelmaking coal business to Peabody Energy for a fee that could rise to as much as R68bn (USD 3.78 billion), as the miner’s restructuring gathers pace.
Anglo American Plc said it’s agreed to sell its steelmaking coal business to Peabody Energy for a fee that could rise to as much as R68bn (USD 3.78 billion), as the miner’s restructuring gathers pace.
Anglo is looking to dramatically simplify — and shrink — its business in a move that was announced during a successful rebuttal of a USD 49 billion (R885 billion) approach from BHP Group earlier this year. Selling its coal operations was seen as the most straightforward first step in the process — which also involves exiting platinum, and nickel and selling or spinning off De Beers — but it was hampered by an explosion and fire at Grosvenor, the largest of its five Australian mines.
Anglo said it would get USD 2.05 billion in cash upfront from Peabody, a US coal miner, with another USD 725 million in deferred payment. The company could receive a further USD 550 million depending on the coal price and USD 450 million depending on the rehabilitation of its Grosvenor mine.
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The business spans five mines in Queensland, which together produced 16 million tons of coking coal in 2023. More than a dozen potential buyers ran the rule over the assets. Anglo previously sold a USD 1.05 billion stake in another Australian coal mine.
