Zurich (AFP) – Swiss resources giant Glencore is still open to a transformative merger with another mining group, its CEO said Wednesday, two weeks after dropping a plan to combine with British-Australian miner Rio Tinto. “If another opportunity comes for us where we can create a big, mega, major miner on the right conditions for our shareholders, we would look at that,” Gary Nagle said during a conference call after presenting Glencore’s 2025 earnings.
The proposed deal with Rio would have created the world’s biggest mining firm, a behemoth valued at $260 billion poised to capitalise on surging demand for copper and iron as well as rare earths critical in high-tech industries. But when announcing the end of merger talks this month, Glencore said the terms offered by Rio “significantly undervalued Glencore’s underlying relative value.” “We just couldn’t reach agreement on value and that’s fine — We look after our shareholders, they look after their shareholders,” Nagle said Wednesday. “This is not a deal that we had to do,” he added, but rather “a deal that…we would have liked to do at the time,” he said.
His comments came as Glencore announced a return to full-year profits, which reached $363 million after a loss of $1.6 billion in 2024. In a statement, Nagle called it “a year of significant progress” and said the company would focus on “successfully progressing our organic production growth options.” In particular, Glencore will step up copper production amid a surge in prices fuelled by AI-driven demand for massive data centres, and the shift toward clean energy technologies. Annual copper production should reach one million tonnes by the end of 2028, Glencore said, before rising to around 1.6 million tonnes by 2035.
On top of a 2025 dividend payout of $0.10 per share, Glencore will also recommend an exceptional payout of $0.07 based on last year’s return to profit. “For many, many decades ahead, the business case for Glencore, a cash generative, returns to shareholder business, is incredibly strong,” Nagle said during the call. Analysts at UK investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown said Glencore would likely find willing partners to help fund its copper production targets, requiring investments estimated at $23 billion.
“Glencore’s ability to go it alone is not in question. Debt levels are manageable and it generates around $4 billion of free cash flow every year,” the analysts said in a research note. “But the consolidation theme is unlikely to go away.” Glencore’s shares were up 4.3 percent on the London Stock Exchange, their main listing, and have jumped 24 percent since the start of this year, despite the collapse of the Rio Tinto talks.
© 2024 AFP
