COMPANIES The retiring chairman of Lonmin, the platinum miner, on Friday said that the UK Takeover Panel “made a great mistake” in its handling of last year’s hostile £5bn approach to the group by Anglo-Swiss mining group Xstrata.
Sir John Craven, who stepped down as chairman of Lonmin on Thursday, said that, in making Xstrata disclose its interest in Lonmin before it was ready to make a firm bid, the Panel “caused huge disruption in our company” just as the metals market was entering its toughest period in years.
