From: www.thetimes.co.za

CEO Mick Davis restates his case for a deal with Anglo at the group’s results presentation, writes Jim Jones.

“Happy days are here again,” Xstrata CEO Mick Davis “sang” at his presentation of Xstrata’s results this past Tuesday in London. He followed his musical efforts with the more serious warning not to jump the gun on calling an end to recession — that world economies have still to show sure signs of recovery.

He added, however, that the US, Chinese and Japanese economies were showing signs of improvement.

The “singing” formed part of Davis’s highly focused and serious endorsement of his Swiss-based mining group’s tabling of a merger of equals to the board of Anglo American. Going solely by the two groups’ latest interim results, it would be hard to find two that are more equal.

Both have similar stock exchange valuations, both have seen revenues drop by a third or so and operating profits by about two-thirds. Neither of them is paying dividends and both have similar levels of debt.