Georgia Pacific, the world's largest tissue producer, Thursday said it will sell its European tissues business to Swedish paper company SCA, $1.8 billion, while mining giant Anglo American said it will sell a 24.5% stake in a Chilean copper mine to Mitsubishi of Japan for $5.39 billion and Daimler Benz said it will sell a 7.5% stake in European aviation giant EADS -- the maker of the Airbus -- to the German government for $1.6 billion.
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While Georgia Pacific, the seller of Brawny tissues won't likely shed a tear about leaving Europe, its employees will. As part of the deal, SCA said it will save $170 million through cost savings like job cuts. Georgia Pacific, which was bought by Koch Industries in 2005 for more than $21 billion, currently employs nearly 5,000 people in Europe and earned $1.7 billion in 2010. The business sale and potential layoffs will face scrutiny by European Union regulatory bodies and key unions. With Georgia Pacific's European tissue operations,. SCA will bolster its tissues and diapers businesses, which had $16.4 billion in 2010 annual sales.According to The New York Times, the acquisition is a move by SCA into consumer products from more wholesale paper businesses and will take several months to complete.British mining giant Anglo American today said it would sell a 24.5% stake in its Chilean copper mining business called Anglo America Sur to Japan's Mitsubishi for $5.39 billion, the country's largest mining acquisition ever. Overall, the announced deal values Anglo American's mine venture with Chilean state-owned miner Codelco at $22 billion. It's also spurned a $6.75 billion bid by partner Codelco, the worlds largest copper miner, to take control of 49% of the venture.Earlier in the year, Codelco tried to exercise an option early next year to buy a 49% stake in Anglo American's Chilean operations, which contains the famed Los Broncos mine and a smelter, valuing the company at $13.5 billion, nearly half the Japanese bid. If Mitsubishi's bid isn't overtaken by Codelco, the mine purchase will nearly double its annual copper production.Codelco said in a statement that it "will exercise all the means necessary to safeguard its rights," - signaling that today's deal wouldn't change its plans to buy a 49% stake in Anglo American Sur. Previously, Codelco had received $6.75 billion from Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Company to finance its purchase option. Codelco has held a purchase option on the partnership since 1978
1 2 Next › Last »Overall, the Chilean copper partnership between Anglo and Codelco reported a pretax profit of $1.3 billion in 2010 and has copper reserves of 2.4 billion metric tons, and 6.4 billion metric tons of additional resources, for a total asset value of $4.9 billion.
"Mitsubishi brings both its global reputation as an industrial powerhouse and extensive experience as an existing investor in Chile," Anglo American's chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, said in a statement. Earlier in November, the company took a $5.1 billion stake in South African family owned diamond producer De Beers.
Founded in 1917 as a gold mine in East Rand, South Africa, with an investment by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, JPMorgan Chase(JPM) and Newmont Mining(NEM) Anglo American is now a leading miner of platinum, diamonds, iron ore, coal, copper, nickel and zinc.In a statement announcing the deal, Mitsubishi issued a promissory note of $5.39 billion as part of the bid that's due to Anglo today.The German government will buy a 7.5% stake in EADS, maker of the Airbus from Diamler Benz after the company was unable to find a private market buyer for its airplanes stake. The sale halves Dialmer's stake in Europe's largest aircraft maker from 15% to 7.5% and will provide $1.6 billion in funds.Still, the deal keeps German influence over EADS at an equal size to the stake that the French government holds, according to Bloomberg. The German state-owned development bank KfW will acquire Diamler's EADS shares and hold them until a private market buyer is found. The German Economy Ministry also said it will look to speed its stake sales in Deutsche Telekom or Deutsche Post as a way to signal that the government isn't looking to intervene in private industry.According to Bloomberg, volatility in markets and a lack of budgetary constraints make stake sales unlikely in the near term, citing unidentified sources. Previously, Qatar had been rumored to be a potential EADS investor.On Thursday, Airbus delayed its A350 aircraft by up to six months as a result of a delay in parts, potentially delaying its efforts to challenge Boeing in wide-body jets. In an earnings announcement today, EADS said that A350's would be assembled in early 2012 and deliveries will be pushed back to 2014, causing a $271 million charge. Nevertheless, its shares rose nearly EADS, 7% Wednesday and have risen 20% this year, according to Bloomberg data. In case you missed it:Goldman Sachs(GS) was rumored in a story by The Wall Street Journal Wednesday to be selling a $1.54 billion stake in Chinese bank Industrial & Commercial Bank of China.
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