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Anglo Starting to See Signs of Recovery, Carroll Says
By resourceINTEL · September 28, 2009 · 9:33 am · Leave a Comment
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Anglo American Plc, owner of stakes in the world’s biggest diamond and platinum producers, is seeing signs of recovery in demand for metals, Chief Executive Officer Cynthia Carroll said.
“We have seen the worst of the downturn and we are starting to see the first signs of recovery,” Carroll said today at an industry presentation in Brisbane, Australia. Anglo is the target of a merger proposal by Xstrata Plc.
The world’s near-term outlook for metals has improved faster than expected, Carroll said. Commodities are poised for further gains heading into 2010 because supply constraints persist for many raw materials as the global economy recovers, Barclays Capital said in a report last week.
Carroll, who became CEO in 2007, has promised to extend job cuts to 19,000 this year, from 15,505 in the first half, to help save $2 billion of costs by 2011, while Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata says a merger would save more than $1 billion annually by the third full year after a deal.
Xstrata, the largest exporter of power station coal, is seeking a “merger of equals” that would combine mines in Canada, Australia and South Africa with nearby sites operated by London-based Anglo, creating a mining group that could compete with BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest. Anglo rejected the proposal in June.
The index of the six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange has jumped 62 percent this year, outpacing a 21 percent gain in the MSCI World Index of stocks…read more at the Bloomberg
