(Bloomberg) — Anglo American Platinum Ltd. declared an additional cash payout of 15.7 billion rand ($852 million) in preparation for an exit by parent Anglo American Plc, even as profit slumped last year.
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Combined with a final dividend for 2024, payouts totaled 16.5 billion rand, Anglo said in a statement on Monday. That will reduce the net cash position of Johannesburg-listed Amplats to 1.1 billion rand ahead of the demerger due to take place in June, according to Chief Financial Officer Sayurie Naidoo.
“We expect for 2025 that our assets will continue to generate cash and be on a cash neutral basis,” Naidoo said in an interview.
Anglo announced plans to exit its controlling stake in Amplats last May, as part of a wider restructuring to fend off an unsolicited $49 billion takeover proposal by BHP Group. The company has since sold off part of its stake in the platinum business to increase its free float ahead of a full separation.
Anglo said it’s made “significant progress” toward the demerger and plans to seek shareholder approval at its annual general meeting on April 30. Chief Executive Officer Duncan Wanblad said the unbundling is on track, with Anglo intending to cut its interest in Amplats to 19.9% from about 67%, before divesting the remaining stake “responsibly over time.”
Amplats plans to establish a secondary listing in London around the time of the demerger to widen its appeal to investors and curtail any potential outflow of capital. A slowdown in the shift to electric vehicles, the quality of its assets and limited new platinum-group metals supply have “created a lot of interest” from prospective shareholders, CEO Craig Miller said in an interview.
Shares of Amplats rose as much as 5.9%, before paring those gains to 1.7% by 12:24 p.m. in Johannesburg.
Amplats – which mines and processes PGMs from assets in South Africa and Zimbabwe – said profit fell 45% to 7.1 billion rand last year. That’s the third consecutive year of sharply declining earnings since the firm reported record results in 2021. The company said the price it received for palladium and rhodium – which are extracted alongside platinum – slumped 24% and 30%, respectively, last year.
PGMs are used in devices that lower emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles. Amplats and peers are focused on finding alternative sources of consumption for their metals, particularly in energy transition industries, to compensate for demand that’s forecast to dwindle from the auto sector as EVs gain market share.
