Anglo American appoints Chambers as next chairman

Reuters

Published Jun 07, 2017 08:48

Anglo American appoints Chambers as next chairman

(Reuters) - Anglo American (LON:AAL) said on Wednesday Stuart Chambers, former chairman of technology firm ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) and beverage can maker Rexam, would become the miner's next chairman to carry on rebuilding the company.

Chambers will join as non-executive director and chairman designate on Sept. 1 and will become chairman on Nov. 1, Anglo said in a statement.

Current chair John Parker, who will step down on Oct. 31, has presided over the company for eight years, including seeing it through a deep commodity price crash in 2015-16.

Last year Anglo recovered strongly, leading gains on the FTSE with a 300 percent rally after a 75 percent fall in 2015.

This year, the recovery has stalled as the commodity rally has faltered and challenges for the new chairman will include dealing with Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, who bought a 2 billion pound stake in the company.

CEO Mark Cutifani said Chambers was bringing relevant skills in "technology-led innovation" and would help to continue to rebuild Anglo.

"We have materially restored Anglo American's balance sheet and transformed the business performance over the last three years, and our task now is to unlock the very considerable value that we can see from our world-class asset base," Cutifani said.

Chambers, aged 61, served as chairman of ARM Holdings, regarded as Britain's most successful technology firm, and Rexam until 2016 when both companies were taken over.

Before that he was non-executive director at Tesco (LON:TSCO) until 2015 and he began his career at oil major Shell (LON:RDSa) as a chemical engineer.

"Anglo American has emerged from the commodity price downturn more resilient and with a renewed sense of purpose, both strategically and in terms of the role it plays in society," Chambers said.

Shares in Anglo were up 0.14 percent at 1,047p at 0730 GMT.