Anglo American brings back dividend

Income-seekers will be relieved to see that one of the world's largest mining companies Anglo-American is reinstating its dividend.

The miner has been helped by buoyant metal prices driven over the past year by ongoing Chinese demand. The company will pay an interim dividend of 23 cents a share and said that it will now adopt a progressive policy on its dividend.

The dividend was suspended in 2008 - after 60 years of continuous payment - when the company faced a perfect storm of falling metal prices as recession built alongside a hostile bid from Xstrata. However, following an internal restructuring which included a management overhaul at South African diamond subsidiary De Beers it is now fighting back.

It is not without its problems though. The company's planned massive iron ore project in Brazil, Minas Rio, has fallen behind schedule as it struggles to secure the licenses it needs.

Nonetheless, the stock has attracted strong broker support with many believing that chief executive Cynthia Carroll has what it takes to turn around the business and sell-off non-core assets. Seven brokers rate it a strong buy, with a further 12 at buy. It was also recently picked by Legal & General Investment Management's Robert Churchlow as one of his key picks for investors to weather 2010 effectively.

The miner has rallied strongly over the past year though already rising some 38.35% against the FTSE All Share rise of 16.3%. Some of this outperformance has been given back year to date when the company is down 6.33% against the index's loss of 5.77%.

The shares dropped slightly on the results falling 0.18% to trade at £25.44 by 9.52am.