ANGLO American’s finance director, René Médori, will retire when he turns 60 in 2017.
Médori, who has been in his position since 2005, is one of the longest serving finance directors on the London Stock Exchange, and the announcement follows earlier speculation that he would retire soon.
No successor has been named. Anglo said it was initiating a formal process to appoint a successor, which will include internal and external candidates. Médori will stay until there is “a smooth transition”.
His tenure has coincided with difficult times for Anglo, once a blue chip company in South Africa and among the biggest and most successful miners in the world.
Earlier this year Anglo said it would cut net debt to below $10bn in 2016 and that its restructuring would be more profound than the plan announced in December.
Following a Moody’s Investor Service downgrade, and criticism that it has not responded sufficiently to a severe decline in metal prices, Anglo said it would sell up to $4bn of assets and focus on precious minerals and copper. The restructuring would result in 50,000 less jobs.
Anglo chairman, Sir John Parker, and CEO, Mark Cutifani, praised Medori.
Cutifani said Médori had helped “to establish the roadmap to a new Anglo American.”
Médori said that “with a clear strategy in place and with our asset disposal programme expected to be well advanced by the time I step down, now is the right time for the Board to consider my successor.
* Anglo, together with most of South Africa’s mining company, reacted to the new draft reviewed Mining Charter saying it “views the decision to publish the draft review prior to seeking input from the mining industry as premature.
“Furthermore, the retrospective application of the draft Charter to our existing mining rights is subject to the same principles as the application brought by the Chamber of Mines, which is currently before the North Gauteng High Court.
It said the review “needs to be comprehensively reconsidered to ensure that South Africa can once again be a preferred investment destination for the mining industry.”
