Anglo American plc (LSE:AAL) agreed to conduct a possible tender offer to acquire Sirius Minerals Plc (LSE:SXX) from Hancock British Holdings Ltd., Directors of Sirius Minerals Plc and others for approximately £390 million on January 8, 2020. Anglo American plc will acquire all the 7.02 billion shares at £0.055 per share. Anglo American plc reached an agreement to acquire Sirius Minerals Plc on January 20, 2020. The consideration will be funded from the existing cash facilities. As on February 14, 2020, it was disclosed that the Sirius Board, in conjunction with its financial advisors, has continued to explore the potential debt financing proposal from a consortium of financial investors (the Alternative Proposal) to raise a $680 million (£520.8 million) funding package to cover the initial scope of work. This would have been a precursor to needing to raise a further $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) of capital to reach an installed and ramped up production capacity of 10 mtpa. The transaction is subject to approval from the court approval, Brazilian Competition Authorities Clearance and other regulatory or relevant authorities. The transaction also requires recommendation of Board of Sirius Minerals Plc. The Board of Directors of Sirius Minerals Plc unanimously recommend that shareholders of Sirius Minerals should vote in favour of the scheme at the court meeting and the special resolution to be proposed at the Sirius general meeting. As of February 24, 2020, the transaction received approval from Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) pursuant to the Brazilian competition law. As of March 3, 2020, shareholders of Sirius approved the transaction. A court hearing to sanction the deal will be held on March 13, 2020. As of March 13, 2020, High Court of Justice in England and Wales sanctioned the transaction. Transaction will complete on March 16, 2020, with Sirius shares delisted from the London Stock Exchange. As of March 13, 2020, transaction will close on March 17, 2020.

Ben Davies, Geoff Iles, Peter Surr and Ben Winstanley of Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited and James Hartop, Edward Rowe and Fiona McHardy of Centerview Partners UK LLP acted as joint financial advisers for Anglo American plc. Linklaters LLP acted as legal advisor for Anglo American plc. Allen & Overy LLP acted as legal advisor to Sirius Minerals. Jamie Riddell, James Robinson, Andrey Zhvitiashvili and Jonty Edwards of J.P. Morgan Cazenove Limited and Spiro Youakim, David Burlison and Victoria Varga of Lazard & Co., Limited acted as joint financial advisors for Sirius Minerals.

Anglo American plc (LSE:AAL) completed the acquisition of Sirius Minerals Plc (LSE:SXX) from Hancock British Holdings Ltd., Directors of Sirius Minerals Plc and others on March 17, 2020. The listing of Sirius' shares on the official list has been cancelled, the admission to trading of Sirius' shares on the London stock exchange's Main Market for listed securities has been cancelled and the Sirius' ADR program has been terminated.