Anglo Completes IronX Purchase

Anglo American has completed its acquisition of two Brazilian iron ore projects from Brazil’s MMX in a deal worth BRL5.4bn. The announcement brings to a close a process that was disrupted at the last minute by an unexpected investigation by the Brazilian federal police into Eike Batista’s companies, including MMX. Anglo said at the time it was evaluating whether or not to push ahead with a deal that had been agreed upon in January. To guarantee the sale went through, Batista pledged to personally pay any losses related to the project out of his own pocket. The London-listed miner bought a 63.5% stake in IronX, the holding vehicle for MMX’s 51% interest in the Minas-Rio iron ore project and 70% interest in the Amapa iron ore system, at BRL28.147 per share. Anglo American will make a buyback offer to minority shareholders, which could take the deal’s value to BRL8.6bn if successful.