Fear at Anglo American as a mining giant is tipped as a takeover target

It wasn't long ago that Anglo American was at the top, with record profits and generous dividends of £4.9 billion.

Founded in South Africa during World War I, the company played a decisive role in creating the global mining industry in the 20th century.

The De Beers department proclaimed 'A Diamond is Forever' in 1947. The company later helped develop Zambia's copper belt.

But the FTSE 100 company is now – at least from the City's perspective – in the grip of crisis at best and at worst. The £24 billion company has been touted as a potential takeover target. Brokers at Jefferies say competing with Glencore could be attractive.

Earlier this month, Anglo shocked investors when it made major overhauls to the strategies of some of its most lucrative divisions. Billed as an update on 'unlocking value', shares fell by more than a fifth that day.

Mining analysts at brokerage Liberum later sent a note to clients titled “Beyond the Confusion and Anger.” So what went so wrong?

Some of the problems are sector-wide. Commodity prices have fallen after a huge rally that took place as the global economy reopened from Covid lockdowns.

This has affected the share prices of all the major miners, but Anglo has done worse than most.

Anglo, which needs to cut costs by £1.4 billion, said it would cut its production of raw materials such as iron ore and copper. These are lucrative areas for the company, which also mines materials such as palladium, gold and diamonds. Anglo is shutting down a copper processing plant in Chile. In Peru, the new Quellaveco copper mine will produce less than expected in the short term because it suffers from geological problems. Anglo's iron ore production in South Africa will be curtailed due to infrastructure and energy supply issues.

Analysts at Jefferies said: 'The magnitude of production cuts is larger than expected – especially in copper.'

But investors are still optimistic, with many brokers urging their clients to buy, and some saying the sell-off that followed the disappointing announcement was overdone.

A controversial part of the business is the fertilizer mine, called Woodsmith, that Anglo is building in the North York Moors.

Anglo rescued Woodsmith in 2020 in a £405 million deal after previous owner Sirius Minerals fell into financial difficulties.

Woodsmith is an area where Anglo is still investing a lot of money. Some in the industry were skeptical that there was a market for the type of fertilizer the industry would produce.

If Anglo were a takeover target, would Woodsmith take the hit or act as a deterrent to potential buyers? No, says John Meyer, head of research at SP Angel. “It would certainly add value,” he says. 'Woodsmith is a relatively simple large-scale mining project.'