BlackRock said it would support consolidation among large mining companies because greater scale would make the sector more attractive to generalist investors and help get large, complex supply projects underway, Olivia Markham said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Australian Financial Review conference in Perth, Markham said the mining industry faces a scale problem when compared with other sectors such as technology. "When you speak to a U.S. generalist investor, they want a large liquid equities to invest in," she said. "Bigger companies have better access to capital, they typically trade at a better multiple, and I think within the context of the mining sector, bigger companies have also got the teams and the people to go and build all these complex projects."
Markham noted that while the sector has already seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions, she believes there is room for additional consolidation. "If there are sensible deals to be done that can make companies bigger, I see merit in doing that," she added.
The comments came amid recent high-profile merger discussions among major miners. Earlier this year Glencore and Rio Tinto explored a potential merger that would have created a roughly $240 billion company, combining Glencore's marketing business and copper holdings with Rio Tinto's operational capabilities to meet fast-growing copper demand.
Rio Tinto ultimately decided not to pursue the deal, saying at the time it could not see sufficient cost advantages for the proposed combination. Market observers have since speculated that Glencore's chief executive Gary Nagle may remain interested and could attempt to reopen talks should Glencore's share price continue to outperform Rio Tinto's.
Market indicators referenced around the discussion showed moves in major miner shares, with the tickers recorded as BHP +1.19%, RIO +1.94% and GLEN +2.88%. BlackRock holds stakes in both Glencore and Rio Tinto as well as in top global miner BHP.
The arguments set out by BlackRock rest on the premise that larger listed miners can better satisfy the liquidity needs and portfolio thresholds of broad-based investors, which in turn improves access to capital and may support higher valuation multiples. Markham linked this dynamic directly to the sector's ability to deliver capital-intensive, technically demanding projects intended to expand supply.
While consolidation is not a guaranteed solution, BlackRock's position is that well-structured deals that increase scale can strengthen the industry's capacity to fund and execute the projects required to meet demand growth, particularly in copper.