Korea Zinc to decide on disputed $1.8 billion share plan as pressure rises
The world’s largest zinc smelter has been caught up for months in a fight between its largest shareholders over strategy and direction.
The prospectus giving details of the creation of a $90 billion mining and commodities trading behemoth will finally find its way to the inboxes of shareholders today.
The successful takeover of Xstrata by Glencore will turn the company into the fourth largest miner in the world.
Billed as the “merger of equals” by industry analysts and insiders alike, the proposed deal has been facing stiff opposition from Xstrata shareholders. They accuse Ivan Glasenberg, chief of Glencore, and Xstrata CEO Mick Davis of negotiating “a cosy stitch-up” without consulting them about getting a better offer.
Ivan Glasenberg, chief of Glencore, and Xstrata CEO Mick Davis received a boost to their chances of selling the deal in early May, when the oil and natural gas rich nation of Qatar said it had plans to up its stake in Xstrata to over 10%, which would make the country’s sovereign wealth fund the diversified miner’s second largest shareholder.
Xstrata is the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal and the fourth-largest copper producer and in the decade under Davis has gone from having fewer than 2,500 employees to a workforce exceeding 70,000 in 20 countries.
A combined Xstrata and Glencore would have revenues in excess of $100 billion with as much as 80% of sales earned from mining.
Talk over the acquisition began last year May when Glencore went public in an IPO valued at $10 billion. Based on current share prices, Glencore’s purchase of all Xstrata shares will cost it an estimated $33 billion.
Learn more about the merger in “Glenstrata: Not just mining’s biggest ever deal, a new kind of resource giant.”
