Glencore has launched a £17billion bid for a rival copper miner amid a growing battle for control of the world’s battery-metals resources.
The FTSE 100 metals giant’s unsolicited approach to Canada’s Teck Resources would create the world’s third-largest copper producer, as demand for the metal jumps along with the shift towards electric cars.
The bid was rejected on Monday by Teck, which is controlled by Canada’s Keevil family and is in the process of separating its coal and copper divisions.
However, Gary Nagle, Glencore’s chief executive, indicated he was not going away, saying: “We put a very-compelling deal forward for the Teck board to consider.
“We are proposing to merge two great companies. It’s certainly not a takeover.
“This is a compelling transaction to a company that is held in highest regard. We want to put our two great companies together and make two even better companies.”
Biggest deal
The Telegraph says the move would mark Glencore’s biggest deal since its acrimonious £24billion takeover of Xtstrata in 2013.
Glencore is one of the world’s largest mining and metals companies, producing and trading oil, gas, coal, lithium, copper, cobalt and other metals around the world.
It had revenues of £205billion in 2022, and has a market cap of almost £57billion.
Teck is far smaller, with revenues of £10.4billion in 2022 and a market cap of about £17billion.
However, it has a prized portfolio of copper, zinc and steelmaking coal mines in areas including Chile and Canada.
Glencore is already a shareholder in some of them.
Merge
Under Glencore’s proposal, Glencore and Teck would merge and then split into two businesses - one focused on battery metals needed for the shift towards greener energy and the other on coal.
Glencore’s shareholders would own 76% of the new entities, and Teck’s shareholders would own 24%.
Glencore is offering 7.78 Glencore shares for each Teck share, which it said amounted to a 22% premium.
Mr Nagle said the new metals company would be a “world-class transition-metals business” with a “leading position in all the metals required for decarbonisation”, while the coal company would be “highly cash generative”.
However, rejecting the offer, Sheila Murray, chair of Teck’s board, said it was “not contemplating a sale of the company at this time”, and that the company’s own restructuring proposal “is a much more compelling transaction and does not limit our optionality going forward”.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 35 points at 7,708 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 41-point gain.
Brent crude futures were 0.65% higher at $85.41 a barrel.
Companies reporting today