Glencore Shares Regain More Lost Ground -- 2nd Update
01 Outubro 2015 - 8:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Alex MacDonald
LONDON-- Glencore PLC shares have recouped the ground they lost
in heavy selling earlier this week, vindicating management's
efforts to restore confidence in the commodities group's finances
amid weak commodities prices.
Shares in the Swiss commodities trader and producer rose more
than 8% to an intraday high of 99.17 pence a share for the first
time since Monday's 29% share-price rout. Shares have since fallen
back a little but are outperforming the broader mining sector and
London market.
Glencore's communications offensive involved repeated messages
to investors on Tuesday and Wednesday that it faced no risk of
insolvency while it pressed ahead with plans to reduce net debt of
nearly $30 billion.
One option that has emerged recently is selling a stake in its
agricultural business, though that would be painful. The
agricultural arm's earnings before interest and taxes last year was
$856 million for Glencore, almost a third of its marketing
division's profit, according to the company's annual report.
Glencore has hired Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG to
sell the business, people familiar with the matter said.
"Glencore has taken proactive steps to position our company to
withstand current commodity-market conditions," the company said in
the statements earlier this week.
The company announce earlier this month it was suspending future
dividend payments, issuing equity and selling assets to reduce net
debt to around $20 billion by the end of 2016.
Despite an initially favorable reaction from investors to the
debt-reduction plan, sentiment turned sour amid continued falls in
raw-materials prices to which Glencore is exposed as a major
producer of coal and base metals as well as one of the world's
biggest commodities traders. More broadly, investors are
increasingly worried about the scale of corporate debt world-wide
as the outlook for earnings growth darkens.
Concerns centered on Glencore's capacity to safeguard its
investment-grade credit rating as commodity prices continue to fall
unless it took greater measures to cut debt particularly if
commodity prices remained lower for longer amid a gloomy outlook
for the economy in China, a major consumer of coal, copper and
nickel among other commodities. Macquarie Group mining analyst Alon
Olsha said in a note this week that Glencore needs to announce an
additional $4 billion in net debt reduction initiatives to
safeguard its investment grade credit rating from downgrade given
the continued price rout over the past three weeks
Losing investment-grade status would severely constrain
Glencore's borrowing and its trading arm would have to curtail its
activities significantly.
Glencore's shares are still down around 68% this year, making it
the worst performer out of the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index. They are down
more than 80% since listing its shares in London in 2011.
The stock-price plunge has highlighted problems investors see in
Glencore's business model, which combines a massive trading
division that buys and sells commodities with a mining arm that
produces those materials. The combination was supposed to make
Glencore less susceptible to commodity-price downturns, but the
amount of borrowing needed to run a trading house has alarmed
investors as the company's earnings and share price have
fallen.
Prices for the main commodities that drive Glencore's
revenue--copper, coal, zinc and nickel, among others--have all hit
multiyear lows in recent months.
On Thursday the company confirmed more job cuts in South Africa
amid floundering coal prices, the latest in a rash of mining job
losses to hit the country. Glencore spokesman Gugulethu Maqetuka
said 378 employees would be affected by the closure of its South
Witbank mine, with 138 redistributed at other coal operations and
the remaining 240 laid off. About 100 employees are expected to be
affected as the company talks with labor unions about closing its
Witcons coal-processing plant. Glencore also said it is still
considering closing its Eland platinum mine in South Africa due to
falling prices, putting more than 900 jobs at risk.
In a sign of confidence about the company's future, a U.K.
regulatory filing showed that Glencore Chairman Tony Hayward
acquired 100,000 shares in the company for around GBP90,890 (about
$137,507) Wednesday.
Meanwhile the cost of insuring $10 million of Glencore's debt
against default over a five-year period continued to fall Thursday.
It is now down nearly a third to $592,000 annually since Monday
when the price ballooned nearly 60% to $876,000, according to
Markit data. The latest insurance cost is still very high
historically, but shows that investor fears may be starting to
ease.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com
Alexandra Wexler contributed to this article.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 01, 2015 07:18 ET (11:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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