Anglo American — the mining house founded in Johannesburg in 1917 — is today a UK-incorporated company, headquartered in London and primary-listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing in Johannesburg. Ernest Oppenheimer founded Anglo American on the Witwatersrand in 1917 1; a century later its legal home and its main share register sit in Britain.
Ownership is widely held, but the single most telling shareholder is South African: the state-owned Public Investment Corporation is Anglo's second-largest investor 2 — the pensions of South African public servants, invested in a company that is no longer South African-domiciled.
How much that matters became a live question in 2024, when BHP approached Anglo with a takeover proposal that the board rejected 3, the PIC pressing for continued South African participation. The approach lapsed — but it showed how a storied African-founded miner can be fought over from Australia and London, with a South African pension fund as a minority voice rather than the owner. It is the heavy-industry chapter of the ownership question this desk runs across the economy.