GLNCY Glencore Plc (PK)

By Alex MacDonald 

LONDON-- Glencore PLC shares hit their highest price in more than a year Thursday, punctuating a rebound for a mining and commodities-trading giant that 12 months ago seemed to be on the brink of collapse.

The Swiss company's stock is up 130% this year at 208 pence a share in intraday trading in London, making it the third-best performer in the U.K.'s blue-chip FTSE 100 index after miners Anglo American PLC and Fresnillo PLC. That is the highest Glencore shares have traded since July 31, 2015.

On Thursday, its shares were up 6.7%.

Glencore's share price has been buoyed this year by rising commodity prices, particularly in zinc and coal. The company has also focused on slashing its heavy debt burden.

Glencore's rise marks a reversal of fortune for the FTSE 100's worst performer last year. On Sept. 28 its shares fell 29% in one day, to 69 pence, because of concerns it would struggle to pay down almost $30 billion in net debt. The company's stock had been steadily declining since its initial public offering price of 530 pence in 2011.

Glencore responded to investor concerns by announcing a raft of measures to cut debt, including an equity issue, dividend suspensions and billions of dollars in asset sales. The plan is bearing fruit, with analysts expecting net debt to drop to well within the company's guided range of $16.5 billion to $17.5 billion by year-end, down from $23.6 billion at June-end and $29.6 billion a year before then.

Rising commodity prices have also been a boon to earnings. As the world's largest exporter of thermal coal and miner of zinc, Glencore has benefited from rising prices of thermal coal and zinc this year.

Liberum Capital on Thursday raised its recommendation on Glencore to a hold from a sell and its target price on the stock to 185 pence from 140 pence after raising its long-term thermal coal price forecast to $60 a ton from $50 a ton. This was due to China's recent decision to curtail the work days of Chinese coal workers to 276 from 300 annually, thereby boosting the need for more coal imports to make up for a shortfall in domestic coal production.

Glencore declined to comment Thursday.

Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2016 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

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