Glencore boss fires shot at deal critics
GLENCORE chief executive Ivan Glasenberg yesterday said the company’s “naysayers” who were trying to torpedo the proposed $37bn (£23bn) bid for miner Xstrata were failing to appreciate its potential.
Glasenberg (pictured) said all sides would benefit from the extra clout the pair would have on world markets.
However Standard Life, which has a 2.2 per cent holding in Xstrata, is one institutional investor to pour cold water on the proposal. Glasbenberg used Glencore’s 2011 preliminary results – showing a seven per cent rise in profit to $4.3bn – as evidence that the company was growing.
On the strength of those results the commodities giant announced a dividend of $0.10 a share in its maiden set of annual results as a public firm. That means a £69m windfall for Glasenberg, who owns 15 per cent of the company. The boss, who is on a salary of £900,000, said he would plough the dividend back into the company and had decided not to take a bonus for 2011.
The chief executive said: “My job is to convince the naysayers who do not understand Glencore.
“We have physical commodities. We are not a bunch of speculators sitting behind [computer] screens.
“The offer is based on a merger of equals. Shareholders do not usually receive a premium on such a deal.”
He added that Xstrata’s chief executive Mick Davis had been a “hard negotiator” who had achieved a premium for his shareholders.
Davis and Glasenberg will be going on a joint charm offensive to encourage investors to vote for the deal. Glencore, which already has a 34 per cent holding in Xstrata, floated on the London Stock Exchange last year.