Anglo American's interims confirm the retreat from South Africa

Anglo American's 2026 interim results to end June, released today, reflected a strong operational performance — underlying EBITDA up 35% to $4 billion, free cash flow up 149%, and the dividend up almost three fold — driven almost entirely by copper. But beneath the good numbers sits a continuing retreat from South Africa: Anglo confirmed the sale of its Steelmaking Coal business to Dhilmar (up to $3.875 billion) and is in advanced talks to sell its 85% De Beers stake for roughly $1 billion, a fraction of its historic value. Combined with the pending Teck merger, which shifts Anglo's centre toward the Americas, the group's South African footprint keeps shrinking, leaving Kumba Iron Ore as one of the few remaining anchors for a company that for decades dominated its homeland’s corporate sector..BizNews Reporter.Anglo American released strong interim results on SENS this morning, but for South African investors the numbers matter less than what the company is no longer holding onto. The group that was founded in Johannesburg in 1917 continues to dismantle itself, piece by piece, out of the country that built it.The headline figures were good. Underlying EBITDA from continuing operations jumped 35% year-on-year to $4 billion, free cash flow surged 149% to $803 million, and the interim dividend nearly tripled to 23 USc a share. Copper did the heavy lifting, with realised prices up 39% to 608 cents a pound and a 60% EBITDA margin on the metal. Group net debt fell to $8.2 billion, with gearing at a comfortable one times EBITDA. On the JSE, Anglo shares (AGL) traded up slightly as institutional buyers looked past a statutory loss of $858 million and focused on the operational story.That statutory loss is itself instructive. It was driven by an accounting write-down tied to the agreed sale of Anglo's Steelmaking Coal business — largely South African metallurgical coal assets — to Dhilmar for up to $3.875 billion. It is the latest in a long line of exits: thermal coal went to Seriti years ago; the bulk of the old Anglo Coal became Thungela; Anglo American Platinum was demerged and unbundled as Valterra; and now steelmaking coal is heading out the door too.Diamonds are next. Anglo confirmed it is in talks to sell its 85% stake in De Beers to Global Diamond Consortium, a group led by former De Beers CEO Gareth Penny alongside Namibia, Angola and major diamond traders, for roughly $1 billion — a fraction of the near-$13 billion Anglo paid the Oppenheimer family for control in 2011, and a shadow of the $18 billion valuation De Beers carried in 2001. De Beers still mines in South Africa alongside Botswana, Namibia and Canada, and Botswana's push for a bigger stake means whatever remains of the business will likely tilt even further away from South African control. Anglo has already taken three impairments on the unit in three years, cutting its carrying value to $2.3 billion.Layered on top of the coal and diamond exits is Anglo's pending merger with Canada's Teck Resources, which is progressing toward regulatory milestones and will further shift the enlarged group's centre of gravity toward the Americas and toward copper — a metal Anglo barely mines in South Africa at all. A nickel sale is also underway. What's left standing in South Africa in Anglo's portfolio, once the dust settles, is primarily its stake in Kumba Iron Ore, which delivered strong margins this half on premium iron ore pricing..Read more:.Anglo Teck merger aims to establish top-five copper producer and minerals leader.The market's verdict on the day was unambiguous: investors rewarded the simplification. Anglo is turning itself into a high-margin copper and premium iron ore business, and the numbers show that strategy is working on its own terms — better cash generation, a shrinking balance sheet, and a dividend investors clearly like. But the strategic logic driving the share price higher is the same logic steadily reducing Anglo's footprint in South Africa. Coal, platinum, diamonds and soon possibly nickel have all been, or are being, sold out of a business whose commercial soul now sits in Chilean and Peruvian copper pits and, pending the Teck deal, a Vancouver head office.For a country that once saw Anglo American as the anchor of its mining industry and a proxy for the health of the JSE itself, these interims are a reminder that the unbundling is not a one-off event but a steady, multi-year trend — and it isn't finished yet..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

Anglo American's interims confirm the retreat from South Africa

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