LONDON, UK: Anglo American plc announced its intention to return an additional $2 billion to its shareholders through an on-market irrevocable and non-discretionary share buyback programme of $1 billion and a special dividend of $0.80 per ordinary share, equal to $1 billion.
Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: “We entered this period of strong demand and prices for many of our products with a strong balance sheet and we are therefore in a position to deliver both the investment in our sequence of margin-enhancing growth projects and also return excess cash to our shareholders. Today’s additional return of $2 billion demonstrates our applied capital discipline and the Board’s confidence in the business.”
Stephen Pearce, Finance Director of Anglo American, added: “As a result of our prudent approach to capital allocation, including our commitment to our established base dividend policy of returning 40% of Underlying Earnings to our shareholders, our balance sheet is in a strong position.
Aligned with that dividend policy, and as Anglo American continues to deliver outstanding financial performance, we will continue to assess all forms of returns. Given the current levels of cash generation and our balanced approach for discretionary capital across investment and additional shareholder returns, we think it appropriate to return excess cash of $2 billion to shareholders.”
“Recognising the different preferences of our shareholders, we will split this additional return equally between a share buyback programme and special dividend. Combined with our base dividend of $2.1 billion, today’s $4.1 billion return recognises the resilience of our position and brings the cash that we will have returned to shareholders since mid-2017 to $10.3 billion.”
The Buyback Programme will begin immediately and will end no later than 14 February 2022. The sole purpose of the Buyback Programme is to reduce the issued share capital of Anglo American.
Anglo American has given irrevocable and non-discretionary instructions to Goldman Sachs International in relation to the Buyback Programme. Goldman Sachs will act as principal and will purchase shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and UK trading venues in line with the proportion of Anglo American’s shareholder register in South Africa and the United Kingdom and will make its trading decisions concerning the timing of the purchases of Anglo American’s ordinary shares independently of Anglo American. The purchased shares will be cancelled.
The number of ordinary shares permitted to be purchased by Anglo American, pursuant to the authority granted by the shareholders at the annual general meeting of Anglo American on 5 May 2021, is 204,331,400 ordinary shares.
The Special Dividend of $1 billion is in addition to the $2.1 billion interim base dividend of 40% of underlying earnings announced today with Anglo American’s half year financial report for the six months ended 30 June 2021.
Anglo American plc share price
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28 Jul, 4:45 pm GMT+1 ·Disclaimer