Anglo American (AAL.L), opens new tab posted a $3.1 billion loss on Thursday, dragged lower by a De Beers diamond unit writedown, and pared its dividend, while the market welcomed its progress towards asset sales and reduced debt.
Anglo is racing to restructure its business to focus on its copper assets after BHP's (BHP.AX), opens new tab failed takeover attempt last year. That includes spinning off platinum and diamond units and selling coal and nickel assets.
CEO Duncan Wanblad said on Thursday the De Beers sale might not be speeded up until the second half of the year.
"Given the state of the markets and the shape of the business as it stands right now, I am really not expecting much traction or progress on that in the first half of this year, but picking up in the second half," Wanblad said on a media call.
Analysts, however, welcomed Anglo's progress so far and the company's shares rose by as much as 3.7% in early trading in London.
"The company reduced the book value of De Beers by $2.9 billion to bring the carrying value of this business to a more reasonable $4.1 billion," Jefferies analysts said.
They also praised Anglo's operational improvements and progress on restructuring.
The London-listed miner's loss followed a $283 million profit last year. Anglo booked at $3.8 billion impairment charge, mostly related to the diamond unit, and declared a dividend of $0.64 per share, or about $800 million, down from $0.96.
Anglo also said it is exploring jointly running its Los Bronces copper mine in Chile with that of state-backed Codelco's [RIC:RIC:COBRE.UL] Andina operation. The two adjacent mines cut costs and boost production under the plan.
The copper sector has seen a jump in M&A activity, which stood at around $26 billion in 2023, but partnerships are also a way to share the risk and costs.
Anglo on Tuesday said it would sell its nickel business for up to $500 million. The company said it has so far raised about $5.3 billion from sales of its assets that the CEO said would be used to cut down debt.
