Glencore, the little-known trader behind much of the world's zinc and copper
For decades one Swiss firm quietly handled most of the zinc traded across borders and half of the copper, yet it stayed private and largely out of sight. Only when Glencore floated in 2011 did a 1,637-page prospectus reveal how much the secretive commodities house actually controlled.
The business started in 1974 as Marc Rich & Co. AG, set up by the traders Marc Rich and Pincus Green. After a failed attempt to corner the zinc market cost $172 million, Rich was forced out in 1994, and a management buyout created Glencore, a contraction of Global Energy Commodity Resources. The firm is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with a registered office in Jersey.
By 2010 it was Switzerland's largest company and claimed around 60% of internationally tradable zinc and 50% of copper, alongside 9% of the grain trade and 3% of oil. Its May 2011 listing in London and Hong Kong valued it at roughly $60 billion and made several executives billionaires. In February 2012 it agreed to buy the miner Xstrata for £39.1 billion in shares, billed as the biggest mining takeover ever; the deal closed on 2 May 2013. At one point the BBC noted that Glencore had more ships than the Royal Navy.
Its reputation has long been contested. In 2005 Australian radio reported accusations of illegal dealings with governments under sanctions, and a CIA report alleged kickbacks under the UN oil-for-food programme, which the company denied. Campaigners in 2011 accused its Zambian copper mine of dodging tax through transfer pricing; Glencore and its auditor rejected the claims.
Weak coal and copper prices hit hard in 2015, bringing a first-half operating loss of $676 million amid worries over debt of $30 billion. In 2020 chief executive Ivan Glasenberg argued that selling off coal mines would do the climate no good, since new owners would ignore the Paris targets, and proposed running production down instead.
Source: Glencore
