Anglo American To Sell Scaw South Africa For $440 Million

Globally diversified miner Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) Tuesday said it has sold its Scaw Metal South Africa steelmaking business for 3.4 billion rand ($440 million), marking the final stage of its $1.4 billion divestment of the entire Scaw Metal Group.

Anglo American sold the unit to a consortium led by the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa and Anglo American's partners in Scaw South Africa (Pty) Ltd: Izingwe Holdings (Pty) Ltd., Shanduka Resources (Pty) Limited, and the Southern Palace Group of Companies (Pty) Ltd. on a debt and cash free basis.

This transaction follows the sale of Scaw's international businesses, Moly-Cop and AltaSteel, to OneSteel Ltd. (OST.AU) in December 2010 for $932 million on a debt and cash free basis, resulting in $1.4 billion accrued from the sale of all its Scaw businesses.

The Scaw sale was part Anglo American's program to divest of non-core assets and focus on its core commodities.

"The sale of Scaw brings the total announced proceeds from our divestments of non-core assets to $3.7 billion since 2010, maximizing value from these businesses for our shareholders," said Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll.

The transaction is expected to be completed sometime during 2012, subject to regulatory approvals.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone] [e-mail]