De Beers is the jewel in Anglo's crown - lab grown diamonds are no substitute for the real thing: ALEX BRUMMER
Most business eyes this autumn are focused on October 30 and Labour’s first Budget.
At Anglo American’s headquarters on the fringes of the City and in Pretoria, South Africa, the month of November is sharply in view.
By then half-a-year will have elapsed since May when Sydney-quoted mining behemoth BHP tried to win control of Anglo and in particular its copper assets, with a £34billion opportunistic bid.
Under City takeover rules BHP will be free to have another go. Anglo showed nerves of steel and fought off BHP with a self-help plan.
Diamond cutting: Anglo American has pledged to demerge its most high profile asset - the diamond miner De Beers
That involved easing the financing burden of the Woodsmith polyhalite fertiliser scheme in north Yorkshire, demerging De Beers, selling down its stakes in South African-quoted mining interests and disposing of coking coal assets for steel.
Chinese co-investors have been found for the fertiliser scheme and the group has been selling down its stake in Anglo American platinum.
It has been a tense ride for shareholders but worthwhile in that the stock is up 23.8 per cent year to date, although there was a nervy moment in August when the shares briefly dropped below 2000p (£20) before zipping up again.
Speculation about a return bid by BHP boss Mike Henry is wide of the mark. Various ideas for pressing home BHP’s advantage have been looked at by advisers, such as removing preconditions regarding the sale of the quoted South African assets.
There should be relief at Anglo that the BHP threat is receding for the time being.
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That should be no excuse for Anglo failing to execute the plan which chief executive Duncan Wanblad pledged to investors.
A big part is disposing of high-profile asset De Beers with a potential split and listing to existing shareholders.
Mined diamonds have come under threat from almost indistinguishable lab copies. That shouldn’t be a problem.
After all, cultured pearls have proved no substitute for the real thing.
Nuclear winter
Government is all about process and when it comes to nuclear power, given the industry’s history, it is understandable that there is a degree of caution.
Nevertheless, the time it is taking to launch a fleet of British-engineered small modular reactors (SMRs), using technology pioneered by Rolls-Royce in nuclear powered submarines, is shameful.
The word nuclear has barely emitted from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s lips even though it gets a desultory mention in the launch document for Great British Energy. It is terrific that, finally, the Government has picked four companies to advance to the next stage of negotiations, including Rolls.
The difficulty is that with every passing day the ‘first mover advantage’ which Rolls has in terms of regulation and design is eroded – an advantage to competitors.
When Rolls first unveiled the designs there was nobody else in the race. Now a joint venture between GE and Hitachi is snapping at its heels.
Westinghouse, one of the other candidates, previously enjoyed UK ownership, but was sold to Toshiba for £3.4billion by Gordon Brown in 2006. That looks to have been another bit of industrial sabotage.
Rolls has ploughed £280million into the enterprise alongside partners including Qatar.
It also received £210million of Government support from the Tories.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves should bulldoze through the auction process and license it for the job. SMRs represent the best opportunity for creating those new, greener UK jobs Labour talks about.
Going low
As the West recovered from Covid and confronted Russia after Ukraine, Saudi Arabia sought to maximise its oil revenues by limiting supply in the belief it would keep prices high.
It hasn’t quite worked. Diminishing Chinese demand and America’s fracking energy surpluses have turned the market upside down.
Even major conflagration in the Middle East failed to stem the tide of sliding prices, currently at $70 a barrel.
The Kingdom needs income to fund its transformational mega projects.
It now plans to pump more oil, to encourage overseas demand and bolster revenues. That’s encouraging for motorists and industrial users – if not terribly green.
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