Cynthia Carroll resigns

Cynthia Carroll has decided enough is enough, and she is stepping down from Anglo American as CEO. The release is on the Anglo website, you can read the full announcement here: Cynthia Carroll to step down as Chief Executive of Anglo American. The response from twitter was, well that was about time, and at last. Not, she will be missed and what a loss for the company. Chairman John Parker was a little more flattering: "Cynthia's leadership has had a transformational impact on Anglo American. She developed a clear strategy, based on a highly attractive range of core commodities, and created a strong and unified culture and a streamlined organisation with a focus on operational performance."


I guess it is easy to blame mistakes on an individual and not the board as a whole, but some decisions are going to be remembered more than others. From their 2008 results the company bought back 1.7 billion Dollars worth of shares, out of the 4 billion Dollars proposed. Shareholders would have voted on that. There was a previous buyback program before Carroll arrived, where the company bought back 2 billion Dollars worth of shares, that was back in 2006: AA plc Share Buyback Programme 1. So perhaps it is not entirely fair to say that it was all her fault. But she drove the bus, when almost each and every day through 2008 all the way to October 3 2008, share buybacks were being announced and taking place. Blame everyone, including the shareholders that approved the buybacks.


But there are some specific projects that she can be "blamed" for. Minas Rio. Again, the board agreed and shareholders would have approved. With regards to safety, I suspect that this is probably something that she can be apportioned blame. Plus, the handling of the copper assets in South America, in Chile and the high profile fight with Chilean government copper company Codelco, that seemed just downright embarrassing at the time. Oh, and remember she was at the helm when Anglo American passed on the dividend for the first time since World War Two. Not anyone else, but her.


The job for the next person will be tough. There will be the same old issues around mining in South Africa. Will the next person be bold and cut, slice and dice! Different divisions would perhaps be given a higher valuation. Maybe. Well, let us not speculate. What Mr. Market does like, however, is that she is leaving. The stock is up two percent in London, to 1896 pence. From the beginning of March 2007 to yesterday, the stock is down one third in London. Thanks Cynthia. Over the same time frame BHP Billiton is up nearly 77 percent. Rio Tinto is up 5 percent. Xstrata, you could have done worse, is down 63 percent. The FTSE is down 5.5 percent. Yip, the Anglo share price has comfortably underperformed even the index. The CIO of the PIC (5.58 percent shareholder), Dan Matjila, was quoted by Bloomberg saying "The performance was more about poor decision making than it was about tough markets.". Check out the Bloomberg story: Anglo's Carroll Quits as First Woman CEO as Miner Lags