Glencore Xstrata up on first day of trading after merger

Shares in Glencore Xstrata climbed more than 4% on Friday, its first day of trading in London, driven by investors optimism about potential dividends and future cost savings from one of the largest deals in recent years.

After 15 months of negotiations and antitrust reviews, commodities trader Glencore International completed its $30 billion all-share takeover of miner Xstrata on Thursday, becoming the world’s fourth largest resource company and the world’s No. 1 commodities trader.

Glencore Xstrata’s new chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, took the stock price rise for the newly combined company with moderate optimism.

“Never celebrate!” he said according to The Telegraph. “We are not opening any champagne, we are not celebrating, we are putting our heads down, we are integrating – and then I will celebrate in five years’ time if we prove that what we did was correct.”

Shares in the new company, which has a market valuation of almost $70 billion, will also start trading in Hong Kong on Monday.

Glasenberg appeared in the #21 spot on MINING.com’s 2013 list of mining billionaires.