Anglo American plc AGM 2008 - Address to shareholders by the Chairman and Chief Executive
15 April, 2008
Remarks by Chairman Sir Mark Moody Stuart and Chief Executive Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American plc's Annual General Meeting for shareholders in London today (15 April 2008).
At Anglo American plc's Annual General Meeting for shareholders in London today (15 April 2007), Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman, and Cynthia Carroll, chief executive, made the following remarks:
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, Anglo American plc:
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Anglo American Annual General Meeting. We meet to review a further highly successful year in which operating profit from core operations rose by 12% to $8.9 billion – allowing us to continue with our progressive dividend policy through the Board’s recommendation of a 15% increase in our dividend to 86 cents which, if accepted, will take our dividends for the year to 124 cents per share. I commend the Board’s proposal to you.
I am also pleased to note the significant progress made by the company under the leadership of Cynthia Carroll and her executive team. There is a new vigour and vitality in the company. A raft of important initiatives has been launched to: improve operational performance; to realise synergies between our businesses and to improve the consistency of application of policies and standards across our operations. In addition, the level and quality of engagement with key stakeholders has been significantly increased.
This refreshed approach has been most evident in the handling of safety issues, which has been a consistent area of concern for the Board. Cynthia Carroll has exerted impressive leadership in this area, challenging ingrained assumptions about the inherent dangers involved in mining and creating real belief in the concept of ‘zero harm’. Managers are aware that they will not progress in the organisation if they have a poor safety record. Furthermore, through the temporary closure of Rustenburg platinum mine for comprehensive retraining of the workforce in the aftermath of a series of fatal incidents, Cynthia gave a palpable demonstration of commitment to our long-standing dictum that safety must come before production. In so doing she has begun to change the nature of the debate about safety across the South African mining industry with the involvement of Government and the unions. There is still a long way to go but there are some encouraging signs that we are achieving a step change in performance. The challenge will be to ensure that the current intense focus on safety continues and that the current improvement becomes sustainable through a change in culture.