Finance
BHP drops bid for Anglo American after early talks
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
BHP Group has ended merger talks with Anglo American, impacting the global copper market. Anglo American will merge with Teck Resources instead.
(Reuters) -BHP Group said on Monday it is no longer pursuing a potential combination with Anglo American after preliminary discussions with the rival miner's board.
BHP had made a renewed takeover bid for Anglo American, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, just months after the London-listed company announced merger plans with Canada's Teck Resources to create a global copper-focused heavyweight.
Anglo American declined to comment on Sunday.
Anglo American's market capitalisation is about $41.80 billion, while BHP's is around $132.18 billion, based on LSEG data.
In September, Anglo American revealed plans to merge with Teck in an all-share transaction, marking the sector's second-biggest M&A deal ever.
In May 2024, BHP scrapped a $49 billion bid for Anglo that would have boosted the Australian miner's holdings of copper, the metal seen as essential for the transition to greener energy.
If the BHP/Anglo deal had gone ahead, the combined entity would have been the world's largest copper producer, with a total annual production of around 1.9 million metric tons.
The new Anglo Teck group is expected to have a combined annual copper production capacity of about 1.2 million tons, still second to BHP.
(Reporting by Anousha Sakoui, Clara Denina, Melanie Burton, and Gursimran Kaur; Additional reporting to Nilutpal Timsina; Editing by Jane Merriman and Richard Chang)
Market capitalisation is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock. It is calculated by multiplying the share price by the total number of shares outstanding.
Mergers and acquisitions refer to the processes through which companies consolidate their assets and operations. A merger is the combination of two companies to form a new entity, while an acquisition is when one company purchases another.
A takeover bid is an offer made by an individual or company to purchase a controlling interest in another company. This can be done through a direct offer to shareholders or through negotiations with the company's board.
Copper production refers to the process of extracting and refining copper from its ores. It is a critical process in the mining industry, particularly for companies focused on producing copper for various applications.
Copper is considered essential for the transition to greener energy because it is a key component in renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels and electric vehicles, due to its excellent conductivity.
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