Glencore, the world's dominant commodity trader, has taken its first step towards becoming a public company by issuing up to $2.2bn in convertible bonds to strategic investors in the US, Singapore and China.
The issue, which values the secretive, Switzerland-based company at $35bn, has been taken up by First Reserve, the US-based private equity group which focuses on natural resources, GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund; US-based BlackRock; and Zijin Mining Group, the Chinese miner.
“This is a clear step towards an initial public offer,” a commodities banker said. “The mix of investors is the typical you expect in a pre-initial public offering operation.”