Anglo American advances on BofA Merrill Lynch's double upgrade

Bank of America Merrill Lynch double-upgraded Anglo American to 'buy' from 'underperform' on improved confidence in management's downsizing plan.

Last month, the diversified miner agreed to sell its niobium and phosphates businesses in Brazil to China Molybdenum for a bumper cash consideration of $1.5bn.

This is more than the investment bank was expecting and gives confidence that chief executive Mark Cutifani's restructuring plan.

Cutifani's "strategic reshaping" set out in February aims to slash Anglo's net debt below $10bn by the end of 2016.

“We have discussed the plan at length with management and now have greater confidence on both mandate and desire to deliver,” Merrill analyst Jason Fairclough wrote in a note on Monday.

“The market may begin to have greater confidence in the company’s plans.”

He also almost doubled the target price for Anglo's shares to 800p.