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Posts Tagged ‘Kloppers’
Mining Week 46/’12: Lonmin vs. Xstrata & the CEO-carousel
November 10, 2012
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Top Stories of the Week:
- Lonmin raises equity to stay independent
- Lonmin announced a $800m rights offering, in that way fending of the proposal by Xstrata to increase its stake in the troubled platinum miner to a majority share.
- The strikes in South Africa, which escalated at Lonmin’s operations, have caused significant lost production and urgent financial issues for Lonmin.
- Sources: Lonmin press release; Financial Times; Wall Street Journal
- BHP starts search for new CEO
- BHP Billiton has started the search for the successor of CEO Marius Kloppers. Apparently the company will not necessarily promote an insider to the top position.
- With Mick Davis leaving Xstrata if/when the merger with Glencore is approved and Cynthia Carroll leaving AngloAmerican next year, 3 of the top CEOs in the mining industry will change.
- Sources: Financial Times 1; The Economist; Financial Times 2
- India limits export of iron ore
- Iron ore exports from the Indian state of Orissa will be limited strongly by new production quota for mines without processing facilities.
- The government is trying to attract processing investment to prevent iron ore is only exported without significant benefit for the country. High export duties (raised to 30% early this year) and production quota are used to discourage exports from the world’s 3rd largest iron ore exporter.
- Sources: Wall Street Journal; Commodity Online; Steel Orbis
Trends & Implications:
- Orissa’s attempts to curb exports don’t do much to stimulate local investment in processing capacity. India’s government announced a year ago that it would make it more attractive for companies to invest by setting up mining right and process plant permitting packages. With the current uncertainty about both global demand and India’s local demand outlook it is unlikely that large investments in additional processing capacity will be made in Orissa in the near future. As a result the will mainly slow down the local economy.
- Almost a year ago, after the announcement of Ferreira as new CEO of Vale, this blog conducted a poll among its readers to find out which top company CEO was mostly to be replaced first. The results showed most trust in the future of Kloppers at BHP. A year later 3 out of 4 are on their way out, while most CFOs have been replaced over the past 2 years too. The high level of activity in replacing top executives indicates a change of mindset in the boards of these companies: shifting from a focus on growth and investment to a focus on operational excellence and payout. The new group of top executives will mainly need to show a track record of cost-control and willingness to make tough decisions on closure of mines.
Results of Dec-2011 Poll on thebusinessofmining.com
2012 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com
Categories: Mining Week
Anglo American, BHP Billiton, business, Carroll, CEO, Davis, Glencore, India, iron ore, Kloppers, Lonmin, mining, mining business, Orissa, rights issue, Rio Tinto, strike, Vale, Xstrata
BHP to Acquire Petrohawk Energy in $12 Billion Deal
July 20, 2011
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“BHP Billiton Ltd. said Thursday it plans to acquire Petrohawk Energy Corp. for more than $12 billion in cash, giving the Anglo-Australian mining company access to large shale assets in Texas and Louisiana in one of the largest deals of the year. BHP will pay $38.75 per share, a 65% premium to Petrohawk’s closing price on Thursday of $23.49 a share.
The deal marks an important strategic step for BHP, which last year was rebuffed in a highly politicized $38.6 billion bid for Canada’s Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. One of the largest global mining companies, BHP has been eager to spend its war chest to diversify from minerals and mining into oil and gas. The Petrohawk deal will double BHP’s resource base in oil and gas, allowing the company to increase its production by about 10% for the rest of the decade, the company said.”
Source: Wall Street Journal, July 15 2011
Observations:
- Key synergies targeted in the deal are in financing new projects: Petrohawk has the reserves, and BHP brings the funds to develop them. The premium of 65% reflects this increased investment, as it values the company on 7.5x PE rather than 4-5x PE.
- Last February BHP bought a set of shale gas assets from Chesapeake Energy for close to $5bln.
- In a poll on this blog in February 57% of respondents thought BHP should expand further in the oil & gas arena.
Implications:
- The $12bln tender offer is all-cash, largely solving BHP’s ‘problem’ of a huge cash pile that some people rather had seen returned to shareholders. With current high iron ore prices the company is generating cash much faster than it is able to invest in organic growth.
- The acquisition increases the weight of the petroleum business in BHP’s portfolio and makes BHP enter in the top 10 of largest petroleum companies in the USA. This development follows the entry of various large petroleum companies in the mining area through oil sand projects. Still it is unclear if more miners will position themselves as ‘large scale commodity producers’ active in both mining and petroleum businesses.
©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions
acquisition, BHP Billiton, business, fracking, gas, hydraulic fracturing, Kloppers, mining, mining business, Petrohawk, petroleum, premium, reserves, shale gas, takeover
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