BHP Comments on Anglo American Offer

(Reuters) – BHP stated that remarks made by its chairman during Wednesday's annual general meeting do not indicate the company's intention of entirely ruling out a renewed offer for Anglo American (JO:AGLJ), months after its failed bid in May.

Chairman Ken MacKenzie mentioned earlier that the company has "moved on" to focus on growth opportunities.

The world's largest miner previously walked away from a $49 billion bid to acquire Anglo after being rejected three times. Speculation arose regarding a potential deal as the expiration of a six-month freeze on BHP making another offer under UK takeover rules approaches in late November.

BHP clarified that these remarks were not intended as a statement under Rule 2.8 of the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers and were not meant to carry any other implications under the UK Code. The company issued this response to media speculation.

Anglo American chose not to comment.

"We made an approach to Anglo American earlier this year … we thought there was an opportunity here to create something unique and special, a bit of a sort of a one plus one equals three opportunity," stated Ken MacKenzie during the miner's annual meeting.

"Unfortunately, Anglo American shareholders had a different view, and they thought there was more value in the plan that their management wanted to execute. And so they moved on. And quite frankly, so have we."

On Wednesday, the mining giant announced that the U.K. Takeover Panel Executive confirmed that comments from its chairman will not be interpreted as a statement of intention to refrain from making an offer for Anglo.