ANGLO AMERICAN agreed to enter talks with rival BHP yesterday despite rejecting its latest £38.6bn bid, potentially paving the way for the mining mega-merger to get over the line.

The latest bid marked a £4bn uplift from its previous rejected offer last week but retains the condition that Anglo carve off its platinum business and South African Kumba operation, which has triggered pushback from the firm and the South African government.

The offer marks a 47 per cent on Anglo American's valuation on its last day of undisturbed trading in April, prior to the news of BHP's first bid.

While Anglo has rejected the latest offer as overly "complex", the firm has said it is willing to engage with the company and has now extended a takeover deadline until 5pm next Wednesday.

"Since the submission of the revised proposal, we have been engaging with Anglo American and its advisors to help mitigate the concerns associated with the implementation of this structure that led to the rejection of the revised proposal," BHP said in a statement.

"We have made progress on these topics over the course of the engagement so far, and we are hopeful that a resolution will be reached in the next seven days."

In a statement yesterday, Anglo said the latest offer did not address its concerns over "complexity, execution risks, an extended timeline to completion" but it was "willing to continue to engage with BHP and its advisers on this topic".

The Sydney-listed firm has been hiking its bids for Anglo American over the past month after making an initial unsolicited £31bn offer for the firm in April. Last week, the miner lifted that to £34bn.

News of the rejection did little to stir markets, with shares in Anglo American closing marginally up at 0.43 per cent.

(c) 2024 City A.M., source Newspaper