The Economist magazine has devoted a lengthy article to Anglo American’s staunch advocacy of conglomeration, which it points out is long out of fashion in business schools and American boardrooms.
The Economist reports the reaction of Anglo chairman Julian Ogilvie Thomson to the 20 percent or so disparity between Anglo’s net asset value and the price it shares trade at on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as, “the market has got it wrong.”
Noting that some younger Anglo managers favour unbundling, the magazine reckons Anglo’s family culture will continue to take precedence over unlocking value.
“Anglo’s senior managers are the sort of people who once staffed the British civil service, graduates (like Mr Ogilvie Thompson) of Oxford, rather than of Harvard Business School. Above all they are loyal to the Oppenheimers.”