By Alex MacDonald
LONDON--Commodities titan Glencore International PLC (GLEN.LN)
said Tuesday that China's anti-trust authorities are reviewing
Glencore's merger with Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN) with a particular focus
on whether the combined company would exert influence on China's
copper market.
"That's the one that they're looking at and that is the one
which they are trying to ascertain how big our supply is into
China," said Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg. "We don't
believe there is any particular commodity that we dominate into
China, and even copper if you take that as an example, there are 20
or 30 different companies supplying the tonnage into China."
Glencore is still awaiting final regulatory approval from
China's Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM, before it can then secure
U.K. court approval for its merger with Xstrata. The merger, first
announced in February 2011, has undergone many twists and turns and
is aimed at creating the world's fourth-largest diversified miner
with a market capitalization of more than $70 billion.
Glencore extended the deadline for closing the merger by a month
to April l6, marking the second time it has extended the deadline
so far this year in order to secure Chinese regulatory approval. It
began the application process in the third quarter of last year,
but the review process has been delayed, in part by a change of
leadership in China.
"We believe that we should meet that [April 16] date," said Mr.
Glasenberg, adding the approval process should accelerate once
China's new government is fully in place.
He also said the combined company's market share in terms of
China's total copper supply is in the vicinity of less than 10% of
the Chinese copper market. He said the combined company's sales
into China shouldn't be a problem across any commodity since
Glencore "has marketed most of the product of Xstrata into China"
prior to the merger announcement.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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