Anglo American finally completes exit from Tarmac

Anglo American has finally completed the exit from its Tarmac joint venture, with the sale of assets in the Middle East to a subsidiary of French engineering and construction group Bouygues.

The lengthy sale process began after the FTSE 100 miner sold off its 50% ownership interest in Lafarge Tarmac to Lafarge in July.

The final joint venture operations were in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, while sale of another non-operating joint venture entity in Oman is also pending.

Anglo, whose chief executive Mark Cutifani has been trying to alleviate the staggering weight of the company's huge debts with a series of asset sales, said the terms of the deal were confidential.

Anglo's disposal plans are at the heart of its attempts to slash its workforce from 135,000 last year to less than 50,000 people.

Shares in the company were up 6.3% to 244.95p by 1320 on Tuesday.