Kerr spells out rationale for South African coal exit

South32 chief executive officer Graham Kerr has given his most frank assessment yet of the reasons behind the BHP spin-off's planned exit from its 27.5 million tonnes per annum South African domestic and export energy coal business.

Barry FitzGerald*

South32 CEO Graham Kerr

His frankness in a presentation to Merrill Lynch's mega metals and mining conference in Miami took things much further than South32's bland "it would be better in the hands of South Africans" ASX announcements on the planned exit, and was well received.