Iron ore price weakens as Australia flags return to sub-$100 prices
Futures dropped for a fourth day in Singapore, to trade about 3% lower for the week.
Activist investor Tribeca Investment Partners has called on Glencore to shift its primary listing from London to Sydney and abandon a plan to spin off its profitable coal business, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Tribeca wrote to the Swiss commodity giant’s board this week with a list of proposals, including moving its listing to the Australian Securities Exchange to boost its share price, which it said had lagged behind its rivals, according to the report.
The Australian hedge fund also recommended increasing dividends by discontinuing share buybacks and divesting a minority stake in Glencore’s lucrative trading division via an initial public offering instead of spinning off its coal business, the FT said.
Glencore declined to comment on the report.
Last year, after a Glencore-led consortium agreed to buy Canadian miner Teck Resources’ steelmaking coal unit in one of biggest deals in the sector in years, it paved the way for an eventual spin-off of its own coal business.
Glencore CEO Gary Nagle said in February that when they announced the deal, their intention was to spin out the unit, but it was always subject to what shareholders wanted.
“We will consult with our shareholders, and it’s the decision of the shareholders ultimately to do that,” he had said then.
(By Aatrayee Chatterjee and Richard Rohan Francis; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shinjini Ganguli)
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