Oppenheimer Sells Anglo American Shares
December 15, 10
(IDEX Online News) - E Oppenheimer & Son International Limited (EOSIL), the Oppenheimer family’s holding company, sold 2.1 million Anglo American plc shares for £63.91 million ($100.5 million). The Oppenheimer’s now hold less than 2 percent of the mining company they founded nearly 100 years ago. 
Nicky Oppenheimer, board member of Anglo American,
reduced family holding in the company to just less than
2% for $100 million
The sold shares represented 7.7 percent of the family’s holding in the multi-commodity firm. The Oppenheimers, with an estimated fortune of abut $5 billion according to Forbes, have a 40 percent direct stake in diamond giant De Beers while Anglo holds 45 percent. The Government of Botswana owns the remaining 15 percent.
The official notice states that EOSIL sold the shares on December 10 in London at an average price of £30.44 per share but did not give a reason for disposing the holding.
In November 2006, EOSIL sold 17 million shares of Anglo representing a 1.01 percent holding in the company, to Larry Yung’s China Vision Resources Limited, reducing its holding to 2.29 percent. China Vision reportedly paid some £425 million ($812 million) for the shares.
"E Oppenheimer & Son will use the proceeds to invest into sectors that are traditionally counter cyclical to its major investments in the mining industry," Oppenheimer said at the time.