LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Anglo American (AAL.L) , opens new tab on Thursday took a further $1.6 billion writedown on its costly fertiliser project in Britain as it takes more steps to cut costs after making a loss of $672 million in the first half.

CEO Duncan Wanblad is under pressure to boost returns to investors and demonstrate he can deliver on his May 14 plan to radically trim and refocus the company on copper and iron ore, after fighting off a $49 billion takeover attempt from bigger rival BHP Group (BHP.AX) , opens new tab.

While Wanblad pinned his approach on getting an early start with selling Anglo's coking coal assets in Australia, a fire at its Grosvenor mine has set back the timing with a likely hit to the deal's valuation.

"Our process to divest that business is well under way with continued strong interest from a large number of potential new owners," Wanblad said in a statement.

The company declared an interim dividend of 0.42 per share, down from $0.55 a year earlier and far below record levels of 2021.

It posted underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $5 billion for the six months to June 30, down from $5.1 billion a year earlier but above the $4.6 billion seen in an analysts' consensus estimate.

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https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/anglo-american-takes-16-billion-impairment-woodsmith-mine-2024-07-25/