Published October 02, 2015 07:36
Source http://www.wsj.com/articles/at-glencore-a-mining-emperor-tries-to-save-his-realm-1443749113
LONDON—The morning he closed the biggest mining deal in history, Ivan Glasenberg pulled out a map dotted with mines around the world.
The hard-charging chief executive of Glencore PLC was jubilant. It was May 3, 2013, and his trading company had just merged with Xstrata, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, in a $29.5 billion deal. And he had won a boardroom struggle to stay in control.
The map detailed his sprawling new empire of mines for everything from copper to coal to zinc. He had even circled competitors’ mines that he could add to his collection.
“Damn sure I’m going to be opportunistic,” he told Wall Street Journal reporters and editors at his London headquarters. “We’ll buy anything if it makes economic sense.”
Then he struck a note of caution: “Will commodity prices stay strong” and “justify putting this much money into an asset-rich company? Have we done the right thing? This is my biggest fear.”