Anglo American withdraws Teck merger bonus plans after backlash

(Sharecast News) - Anglo American has withdrawn plans to award multimillion-pound bonuses to senior executives tied to its proposed $50bn merger with Canada's Teck Resources, following a backlash from shareholders. The FTSE 100 miner had sought approval to amend its 2024 and 2025 long-term incentive plans to guarantee a minimum vesting of 62.5% of share awards for chief executive Duncan Wanblad and other top executives if the Teck merger were completed.

The proposed changes, worth an estimated £8.5 million for Wanblad, drew criticism from major investors and proxy advisers, including Legal & General Investment Management and Institutional Shareholder Services, which said the guaranteed payouts undermined performance-based criteria and represented poor governance practice.

After what it described as "extensive discussions" with shareholders, Anglo said the pay amendment had been removed from the resolutions to be voted on at Tuesday's meeting, where shareholders would decide only on the allotment and issue of new shares linked to the Teck deal.

The company added that it would continue to engage with investors on executive remuneration ahead of its 2026 annual meeting.

Analysts at Peel Hunt said the withdrawal of the bonus proposal "should ensure strong backing" for the merger itself, the Financial Times reported.

The merger with Teck, valued at between $50bn and $53bn, would create one of the world's largest producers of mined copper and mark another step in Anglo's broad restructuring, which included plans to offload De Beers and its coal, nickel and platinum divisions.

The new group, to be renamed Anglo Teck, would be headquartered in Vancouver and listed in both London and Johannesburg.

Anglo stressed that the combination "does not change South Africa's sovereignty, operations or obligations" and that it remained "deeply committed" to its South African businesses, including Kumba Iron Ore.

The company said the enlarged group would continue investing in projects such as the ZAR 11bn (£486.46m) UHDMS expansion at Kumba and contribute ZAR 600m to the Junior Mining Exploration Fund.

At 0918 GMT, shares in Anglo American were down 0.67% in London at 2,960p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.