Gold-digging in South Beach | USAEMALL.com

One thing to start: Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist, has left the artificial intelligence start-up six months after an unsuccessful coup against chief executive Sam Altman.

In today’s newsletter:

• What’s next for mining giant Anglo American

• Hunting down Greensill Capital’s billions

• Private equity evades Lina Khan’s scrutiny

Anglo American plans break-up as mining advisers descend on Miami

Spoiler alert: we were kicked out of Bank of America’s mining conference in Miami.

But let’s back up first. There’s a new development in the mining mega-deal saga that has captivated Wall Street: Anglo American unveiled plans on Tuesday to break itself up as a way to fend off BHP’s recent attempts to buy the company.

Under the scheme, which is the biggest shake-up for the century-old firm in decades, Anglo will trim down to refocus on its copper, iron ore and fertiliser businesses.

At the same time, it will shed long-held mines that produce platinum metals, metallurgical coal and nickel, as well as its trophy diamond brand De Beers — all through sales and spin-offs.

The drastic measures are in response to BHP’s £34bn bid for the company. The fact that Anglo has finally moved to overhaul its messy structure and sweeping commodities mix “has to be a good thing”, Lex writes.

“It’s what we’ve been waiting for. It’s a proper defence,” said one large shareholder in Anglo and BHP. “This puts the ball back in BHP’s court whether they want to pursue it.”

The battle for the mining giant was on everyone’s mind as investors, executives and advisers descended on South Beach on Tuesday for Bank of America’s mining conference.

Attendees were busy between meetings and panels: one mining executive hadn’t had time to read Anglo’s proposed break-up before heading into the conference, where back-to-back presentations were put on by the world’s biggest miners.

Those looking forward to watching Anglo’s chief executive sweat in person were left disappointed — Duncan Wanblad opted to make his remarks via video.

Even though Anglo doubled down on its effort to thwart BHP’s overtures, speculation is still swirling in Miami. Now, the race is on to scoop up Anglo’s other assets.

A new breed of coal producers such as Whitehaven, Peabody Energy and Metals Acquisition Ltd could all be interested in the group’s coking coal mines in Australia, analysts said.

Now to getting kicked out of the conference: just before noon on Tuesday, DD’s Maria Heeter was in between meetings at the hotel bar when she was asked to leave the premises.

She was escorted out by a security guard and told she couldn’t return to the hotel until later this week — once the conference is well over. The guard wouldn’t say who complained about her being there.

But don’t worry: she’s still be meeting with all sorts of attendees across the street. Reach out at maria.heeter@ft.com if you’re around.

Hunting down Greensill Capital’s missing billions — in West Virginia

Credit Suisse is scouring the world to track down the billions of dollars lent on the bank’s behalf by failed finance firm Greensill Capital.

Its latest target: a small Virginia community bank with close ties to a coal baron running for the US Senate, the FT’s Owen Walker and Joshua Franklin report.

Debt collectors at Credit Suisse — now run by rival UBS — have lodged their latest lawsuit against local lender Carter Bank. The aim is to recoup $226mn from its biggest client, who also happens to be West Virginia’s governor: Jim Justice.

Through his mining company Bluestone Resources, Justice was one of Greensill’s biggest borrowers. Of the $2.6bn Credit Suisse’s debt collectors are still trying to reclaim, Bluestone owes $690mn.

There’s a three-way fight happening here: between Justice, Carter Bank and Credit Suisse. Justice also owes Carter Bank a large sum, which Credit Suisse thinks is getting in the way of their own repayment.

As a result, the new Credit Suisse claim against Carter Bank accuses the lender of fraudulent conveyance, where a debtor passes on assets to another party that are owed to their creditor.

Credit Suisse struck a repayment deal with Justice two years ago, which included regular payments from Bluestone. But for the plan to work, the company’s ageing mines need serious investment.

Carter Bank is now trying to seize collateral from Justice to recoup the loan. The crown jewel of Justice’s sprawling business empire is the five-star, 700-plus-room Greenbrier resort.

First up is West Virginia’s Greenbrier Sporting Club. But the resort — one of America’s most renowned luxury destinations — could be next.

PE evades the wrath of Khan . . . for now

One of the big trades for private equity over the past decade has been to roll up arcane businesses such as HVAC distributors, car washes and physician practices, then flog the larger operation on to another buyout fund for a gain.

Private equity group Welsh Carson pulled this off after creating a roll-up called US Anesthesia Partners in 2012 to acquire anaesthesiology businesses across Texas. Five years later, Welsh Carson sold a large stake in USAP to rival PE firm Berkshire Partners for a gain. Along the way the two buyout groups received hundreds of millions in dividends.

The archetypal PE deal, however, faced a significant challenge in 2023 when the Federal Trade Commission’s Lina Khan made it the centrepiece of her efforts to challenge PE-backed roll-ups and hold buyout firms accountable for perceived anti-competitive behaviour.

Khan levied an antitrust case against USAP and included Welsh Carson in her lawsuit, a novel manoeuvre in an attempt to hold the buyout group accountable for its portfolio company.

“The antitrust laws may apply to parent companies and investors if they directly participate or conspire to participate in anti-competitive conduct,” Khan wrote in an FT op-ed.

But the tried and true tactics of PE have helped Welsh Carson wriggle out of the FTC’s grip.

On Monday evening, a Texas judge dismissed Khan’s case against Welsh Carson, but allowed the antitrust case against USAP to continue. In effect, Khan failed to “pierce the corporate veil”, holding an investor accountable for machinations inside its portfolio.

Offloading USAP to another PE buyer helped Welsh Carson immensely. It sold most of its USAP interest in 2017, leaving it with just a 23 per cent stake and two board seats. That minority ownership was crucial to the Texas judge’s decision to dismiss Khan’s case.

Though it is a partial setback for the FTC, it remains unclear if it will appeal against the ruling. The FTC declined to comment.

A source familiar with the FTC’s thinking said the ruling was a “vindication in a very conservative court of an important tenet of the new merger guidelines focused on serial acquisitions”.

The outcome will enable the FTC to “address the theory of harm that they want to develop and to ultimately get an order that deals with the entity that actually exercises control over these assets”, William Kovacic, former Republican chair of the FTC, told the FT’s Stefania Palma.

PE dealmakers also tell DD that vast merger reviews will continue to cool M&A activity, underscoring that Khan has been winning in deterring dealmaking while losing some high-profile cases.

Job moves

• Amazon has appointed Matt Garman as the head of its cloud computing business after Adam Selipsky unexpectedly stepped down.

• The Swiss private bank J Safra Sarasin has tapped Bank of America and Goldman Sachs for a new advisory team that will strike deals for its ultra-rich clients.

• Citigroup executive Titi Cole, who had been in charge of implementing the bank’s restructuring plan, has left for a job at a non-profit. 

• Bank of America has appointed Phil Drake as head of UK equity capital markets; Rahul Bhandari as head of Emea equity linked ECM; and Lucrezia Lazzari as head of ECM in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. 

• Arini has hired Matthew Cestar as president. He most recently worked at ICG.

• Former UK chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has been appointed chair of online retailer The Very Group.

Smart reads

Drexel legend Before he died in February, Donald Engel told Bloomberg’s Heather Perlberg about his front-row seat to Wall Street’s most powerful financiers. Wild parties and all.

‘Sky’s the limit’ Saudi Arabia’s leaders are weighing priorities on the country’s myriad investment projects with deadlines fast approaching, the FT reports.

Copper craze There’s one essential metal at the heart of the world’s demand for EVs and data centres: copper. Investors from China to the US can’t get enough, The Wall Street Journal writes.

News round-up

‘This is Bill. Bill Hwang’: US jury hears founder’s call to Archegos lenders (FT)

Payments-company Waystar plans to restart IPO pitch (WSJ)

Uber to buy Deliver Hero’s Foodpanda Taiwan business in $1.25bn deal (FT)

US sharply raises tariffs on Chinese EVs and semiconductor imports (FT)

Berlin explores tax breaks to get Germans working longer hours (FT)