Anglo American Platinum Limited, the 79.8 percent owned subsidiary of Anglo American Plc. (AAL.L,AAUKY.PK), Tuesday announced some restructuring measures, including reconfiguring of its Rustenburg operations. The measures are expected to lead to job losses of up to 14,000.
The measures were announced after the company concluded a review of its business, announced in February 2012, to create a sustainable, competitive and profitable platinum business.
The company will reconfigure its Rustenburg operations into a sustainable 320-350,000oz platinum producer across three operating mines and divest the Union mines at the right time with a view to maximising value under different ownership.
The firm will deliver 3.8 billion rand of annual benefits by 2015, through efficiency and cost reduction initiatives. This includes annual savings of 390 million rand from optimizing its overhead structure.
As a result of these measures, up to 14,000 jobs may be affected, of which 13,000 will be in the Rustenburg area. The company said at least 14,000 new jobs would be created to balance the number of jobs that may be affected by the restructuring. Employees and communities in Rustenburg and the labor-sending areas will be provided with a comprehensive package of support.
Anglo American Platinum also proposes to reduce its planned capital expansion expenditure over the next 10 years by around 25 percent to 100 billion rand to focus investment on low-cost, high-margin projects.
Chris Griffith, CEO of Anglo American Platinum, said, “The platinum business has attractive underlying fundamentals, but we are facing tough decisions to restore profitability to our operations.”
The parent company Anglo American said it supports Anglo American Platinum’s conclusions of the review of its business and endorses the proposed strategy.
AAL.L is currently up 0.7 percent at 2,050 pence.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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