What Matters Today: BHP’s increased bid rejected by Anglo American (AAL LN), now what?

Overnight, we heard that the BHP v Anglo-American story had entered and finished Chapter II, and the saga could potentially have taken its final twist:
BHP increased its bid for Anglo-American (AAL LN), which would have given AAL shareholders 16.6% of the new group, up from 14.8%.
According to BHP, the revised bid of 0.8132 BHP shares, up from 0.7097, for each AAL share values the London-based miner at £27.53 – a 14.6% increase to bid 1.
The second more attractive bid by BHP was rejected by the AAL board overnight.
The UK miner now needs to deliver a compelling vision of how it can survive and flourish independently without merging with the “Big Australian.” The synergies were undoubtedly there, although it wasn’t the cleanest deal in town, but AAL don’t appear keen to tango. The deal was offered to the AAL board last week and formally rejected overnight.

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