Has Anglo American come in from the Nordic cold?

Group reduces thermal coal production

In May last year Norges Bank Investment Management, the $1.4trn sovereign wealth fund, announced its divestment from Anglo American along with four other mining and utility companies as they fell foul of the fund’s exposure limits on thermal coal.

Last week Anglo spun off its South African thermal coal business, Thungela, reducing its thermal coal production by 30 million tonnes and therefore dropping below the 20 Mt limit set by the Norwegian fund. One would assume the Norwegian fund will now review their position and remove the company from their exclusion list, albeit the three-year offtake agreement Anglo has agreed with Thungela may delay this decision. The action by the fund last year sent a powerful signal from the world's largest sovereign wealth fund to companies in fossil fuel intensive sectors that the threat of dive...