Banks rush to lend to Glencore as it secures $12.8bn in funding
COMMODITIES trading giant Glencore swept corporate concerns over bank lending to the side yesterday as it secured a mammoth round of funding, with financial institutions queueing up to sign over their money.
Ninety-one global banks have committed to the funding syndicate, pledging a total of $12.8bn (£7.9bn) – well above the $10bn that the company had initially planned to raise.
The funds will finance Glencore’s new and existing revolving credit facilities.
Finance chief Steven Kalmin said the demand proved that ample funding was still available in the market for “companies such as Glencore, which are conservatively financed and have long and strong credit track records and banking relationships”.
Glencore also said it had recently signed an additional $3.1bn syndicated loan to back its proposed merger with Xstrata, having already raised $11bn from a syndicate of 31 banks.
The merger is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year, despite delays to some of the paperwork revealed this week.