Anglo American has announced plans to cut more than 2,700 white-collar jobs and raise about $10 billion (£6 billion) by selling assets.

The mining group said yesterday that a quarter of its managers would go over the next six months in a move that will save Anglo about $120 million a year. Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive, has also strengthened her grip on the company by restructuring the senior management team. Philip Baum, head of ferrous metals, Ian Cockerill, head of Anglo Coal, and Russell King, the chief strategy officer, will all leave.

The job reductions announced yesterday are in addition to the 15,000 positions that Anglo has already lost as part of its attack on costs in response to the economic downturn.

Analysts said that the scale of the management job cuts and asset sales showed that Anglo was responding to shareholder dissatisfaction with the company’s performance.

Xstrata, the Anglo-Swiss miner, had hoped to take advantage of that mood by proposing a merger of equals in June. It was forced to drop its approach two weeks ago after being given a “put up or shut up” order by the Takeover Panel.

Sir John Parker, Anglo’s new chairman, is understood to have encouraged shareholders to reject the Xstrata approach so that Ms Carroll could be given more time to turn Anglo round.

Jonathan Jackson, head of equities at Killik & Co, the stockbroker, said: “Anglo has six months before Xstrata can rebid and management appears to have a renewed sense of urgency to display to shareholders that it is better placed as a standalone group.”

Anglo’s share price closed up 9p at £22.85 yesterday while all the other FTSE 100 miners closed down.

The company said the assets it was putting up for sale had contributed $1.2 billion, or 11 per cent, of total earnings last year. Based on standard acquisition multiples, it could therefore raise $7 billion to $12 billion. Among the divisions for sale is Tarmac, the UK-based aggregates business.

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