By William Clowes and Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Anglo American Platinum is evaluating a secondary listing in London to broaden its investor appeal after it’s spun off from Anglo American Plc.
Such a listing would “support a diverse group of shareholders,” chief executive officer Craig Miller told reporters on Monday, after the company known as Amplats reported an 18% decline in first-half earnings.
Johannesburg-based Amplats is preparing to become a standalone company, with Anglo’s controlling interest to be distributed to its shareholders before the end of 2025. That spinoff was announced earlier this year as Anglo successfully fended off a $49 billion approach from BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner.
Anglo’s plan centered around exiting diamond mining by spinning off or selling its De Beers unit, separating platinum and selling its coal mines.
Anglo believes its Amplats demerger would avoid scrutiny by South Africa’s antitrust authorities, which was one of its biggest concerns under BHP’s takeover plan. However, many Anglo shareholders could be unable or unwilling to hold stock in the South African firm, causing an outflow of capital and a likely decline in the share price at the beginning of Amplats’ independent life.
As Amplats plans for life after Anglo, it completed a restructuring at its South African operations that’s so far resulted in the departure of about 2 800 workers.
Amplats announced cost-cutting measures in February that would impact 3 700 employees as plummeting platinum-group metal prices squeezed earnings. About three-quarters of those workers have left the company following a consultation, with the remainder expected to exit in the second half of the year, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Notably, other PGM miners have also introduced major job cuts across the country.
Sibanye Stillwater has cut 11,000 jobs from its workforce in the last year and a half.
Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said the company’s restructuring needs to “align with the reduced operating footprint following the necessary operational restructuring for greater regional sustainability and profitability.”
In April, Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) also initiated a S189 restructuring process, with 3,900 jobs on the line at its office and Impala Rustenburg, Impala Bafokeng and Marula operations.
“PGM pricing has declined sharply since the start of 2023, which together with persistent inflationary pressures on input costs has resulted in significant pressure on profitability and cashflow across the entire PGM sector, our operations included,” said Nico Muller, Implats CEO.
Implats already cut 1,000 jobs in the second half of 2023.
As a massive employer and tax contributor, mining is essential to South Africa’s economy. The sector employs roughly 450,000 people and pays R140 billion in tax and royalties annually.