{Deal confirms Swiss company is back on acquisition trail after cutting debts.}<\/p>\n
Glencore on Monday announced a $960m deal to buy Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler out of two of the mining-cum-trading company\u2019s copper and cobalt operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n
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\tThe deal is another sign that Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore chief executive, is back on the acquisition trail after two years spent strengthening the company\u2019s balance sheet during the commodity slump.<\/p>\n
Glencore will buy Mr Gertler\u2019s 31 per cent stake in Mutanda Mining and his 10 per cent shareholding in Katanga Mining, both of which are held through his Fleurette group.<\/p>\n
Mr Gertler\u2019s stake in Mutanda is valued at $922m, while his shareholding in Katanga is worth $38m, according to a statement by Fleurette. Glencore is set to pay $534m to Fleurette in cash for the equity, after deducting debts owed by Mr Gertler\u2019s group and its affiliates to the Swiss company.<\/p>\n
After the deal, Glencore will have a 100 per cent interest in Mutanda, and 86 per cent of Katanga.<\/p>\n
Mr Gertler said on Monday that his investments in the Mutanda and Katanga mines had \u201cgenerated $3bn in tax revenues since our investment \u2014 a significant contribution to the DRC economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith [Mutanda] now operating at full capacity, we feel now is the right time to exit our investment and to reinvest in further brown and greenfield opportunities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Analysts said that Glencore\u2019s move to buy out Mr Gertler from the two DRC mines would lead to only a marginal increase in its net debt, which would remain below 2 times earnings \u2014 the company\u2019s self imposed target.<\/p>\n
Glencore has invested heavily to transform Mutanda into a large copper producing mine.<\/p>\n
It has been hailed by analysts as one of the Glencore\u2019s most attractive copper assets even though it is in the DRC, where there have been anti-government demonstrations in recent months.<\/p>\n
Analysts and fund managers said they were not surprised that Glencore was severing ties with Mr Gertler in the DRC, given impending political change.<\/p>\n
President Joseph Kabila, who has close ties with Mr Gertler, said last year that he would step down in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlencore doesn\u2019t want to be too closely associated with the old regime, so is moving to distance itself,\u201d said one fund manager.<\/p>\n
Many of the world\u2019s biggest mining companies are keen to increase their exposure to copper because supply shortages are expected to emerge before the end of the decade.<\/p>\n
The metal hit a two-year high above $6,200 this month.<\/p>\n
Source:Financial Times <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Deal confirms Swiss company is back on acquisition trail after cutting debts.} Glencore on Monday announced a $960m deal to buy Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler out of two of the mining-cum-trading company\u2019s copper and cobalt operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2783],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-financial-times"],"bylines":[{"id":2783,"name":"Financial Times","slug":"financial-times","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2783,"name":"Financial Times","slug":"financial-times","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32536"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32536"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}