Vale will seek to spin off copper and nickel business, CEO says

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Vale (NYSE:VALE) is reconsidering a near-term spinoff of its base metals business and an eventual public listing, ring-fencing the copper and nickel unit from the iron ore business, CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo said Friday.

Rather than selling all or part of the base metals unit, the idea now is to eventually grow the business as big as Vale (VALE) today, which has a market cap of $66B, and take it to the public market, Bartolomeo told a Financial Times mining conference, without providing details on timing.

The two businesses have different growth prospects, with "huge growth" in base metals because of the energy transition away from fossil fuels, while iron ore is a mature business, the CEO said.

Vale (VALE) recently forecast global demand for nickel should rise 44% by 2030 to 6.2M metric tons.

Vale (VALE) may be "one of the most cheaply valued companies on the market," and it offers a nearly 10% dividend yield, Cavenagh Research writes in an analysis published recently on Seeking Alpha.