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Anglo American Platinum is to pay its parent a $600mn dividend ahead of its planned demerger in June, the company announced on Monday.
Amplats, as the world’s largest platinum company is known, is to pay out $900mn from its retained cash to shareholders in total with most going to Anglo American, which has a 67 per cent stake.
Announcing its financial results for the year to December, Craig Miller, chief executive of Amplats, said the company was using the planned demerger as an opportunity to “relook at the balance sheet”, and so pay an additional dividend.
Anglo American will retain a 19.9 per cent stake in the platinum company after the demerger. Amplats will remain listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange with an additional listing in London.
Miller, on a media call, described this as a “residual stake that will be distributed in an orderly fashion”.
Earnings at the platinum company fell 40 per cent to $457mn, as the price of the basket of metals it sells fell 11 per cent to $1,468 per ounce. These platinum group metals are largely used in the engines of motor vehicles.
Anglo American’s plans to divest from its platinum arm, as well as diamond company De Beers and its steelmaking coal business, were accelerated last April after rival BHP launched an ultimately unsuccessful takeover offer.
