Swiss company glencore. Glencore, which has long been associated with the Russian oligarchs, has disclosed the details of the purchase of Rosneft shares for €10.2 billion, the deal will be closed in mid-December. Company activities and assets

Swiss trader founded in 1974 by Marc Rich and at the time called Marc Rich and Co. In 1994 the company was renamed Glencore. The office is located in Baar, Executive Director- Ivan Glasenberg. Glencore's trading business employs 2,800 people worldwide and owned by the company factories and terminals - another 55 thousand employees. Glencore trades in metals, minerals, energy, food. Revenue in 2010 was $145 billion.

For a long time, Glencore was an extremely closed company in terms of information, but in early 2011 it revealed some information about itself, having carried out a successful IPO that turned its top managers into billionaires (at least on paper).

Glencore was founded in 1974 by the legendary and infamous trader Marc Rich, a Belgian by birth. At that time, he was wanted by the US authorities on charges of violating economic sanctions in trade with Iraq and chose to flee the country, but was later pardoned.

It is a well-known fact that Glencore has more tankers than the entire British fleet, but the company is also a "training ground" for commodity traders: many of the "stars" in the industry began their careers in Glencore.

In 1994, Mark Rich sold his stake in Glencore. The company's current largest shareholder is its former coal trader and current chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg. The South African owns about 16% of the shares, which at current prices on the London Stock Exchange means a fortune of about 4.5 billion pounds. Glasenberg himself is still not too comfortable in the new status of a public figure. In total, Glencore employees own 80% of the shares.

The IPO, which the company held in the spring, was the largest of the year and attracted huge market power. However, at the same time, talk began that such a placement means that the “cycle” in commodity trading has ended and interest in this sector is declining. Although Glencore went public in May at 530 pence a share, the price has fallen somewhat since then, with shares now worth about 400 pence.

Glencore has made a name for itself in risky trades and in sectors that few dare to venture into. This strategy has often been successful, although as recently as last month the company found itself at the center of a standoff in the newly formed state of South Sudan: a conflict over the right to export crude oil could jeopardize the company's entire business in the region.

Today, Glencore sells or buys approximately 3% of the world's daily oil consumption, in addition to being one of the largest suppliers of zinc, lead and nickel, as well as a leading grain exporter from Europe, countries former USSR and Australia.

Although it started out as a simple oil and metals trader, the company quickly realized the importance of acquiring assets in the industry. Since the late 80s, Glencore has bought a lot of them - from agricultural farms in South America to copper mines in Zambia. Therefore, today a significant part market capitalization Glencore accounts for mining and other assets owned by the company. First of all, this is 34.5% of the Swiss mining holding Xstrata. Glencore has officially said that a merger with Xstrata would bring "great benefits", but so far the deal is blocked by others minority shareholders companies.

Based on materials

In the early 1990s, it was the main seller of Russian metals and oil. Why did she give up her position?

Valery Igumenov

It is the largest non-public company on the planet: its turnover in 2006 amounted to $116.5 billion, one and a half times more than that of Gazprom. Her business fits into one simple scheme: she buys raw materials from mining companies and sells them to processors. Details? They are not so easy to get: eight out of ten former and current employees of the company (and we interviewed about three dozen) refused to answer our questions. Those who agreed usually spoke anonymously. “The ideology is this: the murkier the water, the bigger the fish we will catch. As soon as the water becomes clear, we have nothing to do,” explains one of them. For decades, this company was not afraid to work in the most backward countries and easily found a common language with dictators rejected by the world. In the early 1990s, in the era of collapse Russian economy, she was the main exporter of Russian aluminum, earning hundreds of percent of the profits.

Meet Glencore International, formerly Marc Rich + Co. Having changed hands, broken its teeth on young Russian oligarchs, and largely lost its influence in Russia, the company has found a way to stay in our market: it participates in the business of large oil and aluminum companies. But how stable is the status quo?

Glencore (an acronym for Global Energy Commodities and Resources) is headquartered in Baar, a town in the tiny Swiss canton of Zug (the entire canton is a quarter the size of Moscow), formerly one of the poorest in the confederation. It was poverty that forced the cantonal authorities in the 1960s to gain the right to adopt extremely liberal tax legislation, favorable for international holdings operating outside Switzerland: they do not pay income tax in the canton (you still have to pay federal tax). The EU authorities are still indignant about the "offshore zone" in Zug, but the companies registered there enjoy the benefits of both tax-free jurisdiction and the status of a reputable Swiss company, and not a "laundry" from the Cayman Islands.

It was in Zug that in April 1974, the 39-year-old businessman Mark Rich, together with his partner Pinkus Green, created the company Marc Rich + Co AG. Former employees American trading giant Philipp Brothers decided to go freelance.

The early decades of Marc Rich + Co-plot for an adventurous romance (see also Young Years). The company traded Iranian oil in circumvention of the American embargo, bought nickel and gold from Castrov's Cuba, traded with disgraced Libya and with South Africa when it came under international sanctions due to apartheid. During the 1973 oil crisis, the partners made millions by running oil through dozens of offshore firms they had created. In 1983, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani (the future mayor of New York) authorized the arrest of Rich and Green, and the charge totaled 65 counts, including tax evasion for $ 48 million. Partners fled the United States, Rich took Spanish citizenship, Green - Bolivian.

Marc Rich turned out to be the only company that dared to supply grain to the USSR, spitting on the international ban due to the war in Afghanistan. By the time the economic system began to fall apart Soviet Union, Mark Rich was already a long-standing and trusted friend of Soviet party officials and leaders of foreign trade associations. Therefore, in the early 1990s, when the water in Russia became quite cloudy, Marc Rich easily began to catch very large fish in it.

“Our people didn’t understand market trade yet, the factories didn’t have money, they asked banks, but the banks didn’t take aluminum as collateral. Mage Rich came with money and took aluminum,” businessman Igor Vishnevsky recalls in an interview with Forbes in early 1990 -x head of the aluminum department, and from 1998 to 2003 - the entire Moscow representative office of Glencore International.The domestic price of aluminum was 5-10% of its market price in the West, and a significant part of the difference settled on the accounts of the Swiss company. on operations with Russian raw materials in the early 1990s, no one undertakes to name, they only say that it was measured in hundreds of percent.As soon as in 1992, by decree of President Boris Yeltsin, tolling was allowed - the processing by Russian enterprises of foreign tolling raw materials for an agreed fee, Marc Rich adopted this tool for extracting super-profits.A high-ranking manager of one of the Russian raw material companies, who worked for the Swiss 15 years ago: “They imported tax-free alumina, paid only VAT on the cost of processing, which could always be lowered by agreement with the plant. And the officials were simply paid rent and carried almost all of the aluminum for export.” In the early 1990s, thanks to Russian tolling, a third of all aluminum on the world exchange market, according to the Washington Post, was supplied by Marc Rich + Co.

While Marc Rich has traded a full range of commodities and commodities, oil has always been her biggest interest. Marc Rich had almost no oil contracts with the USSR, and it was more difficult to get into the oil export system than into aluminum processing: it was monopolized by the Soyuznefteexport foreign trade association created back in the 1920s. In order to get the oil, Mage Rich had to create production joint ventures, supplying equipment and modernizing several oil refineries in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The difference between the domestic and foreign prices of oil products more than covered the costs.

The matter, however, was not limited to investments. The technology of concluding profitable oil contracts was tested by partners back in 1973, when, according to BusinessWeek magazine, they bought a luxurious mansion in the south of France and settled expensive Parisian prostitutes there. Negotiations were held here with Arab sheikhs. The "method for sheikhs" was successfully tested on the "first Soviet millionaire" Artem Tarasov. In his memoir Millionaire, he describes how, in the late 1980s, a suite was rented especially for him in a luxurious London hotel, a yacht with an orchestra was rented, how Mark Rich's people took him to nightclubs, offering to take any dancer into the room - the company pays for all. Tarasov not only signed a contract that was beneficial for the Swiss company, but also brought it to the then Minister of the Grain Industry of the USSR, and soon Marc Rich began bartering Argentinean grain for Russian oil products.

The Moscow office of the company gradually began to develop: in 1992, about 20 people worked in it, and after a year and a half - more than a hundred. “Mostly MGIMO graduates and former foreign traders with their own contracts came,” recalls general manager Mechel Alexei Ivanushkin, who rose to the rank of head of the ferroalloys department in the Moscow office of Marc Rich. The company willingly hired people with hardware experience: the father of the same Ivanushkin, Gennady, a former consul in Geneva and a retired KGB general, headed Russian service security of the Swiss company.

From 1989 to 1993, Marc Rich was one of the largest buyers of Russian oil, aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, coal, and a supplier of grain and sugar to the country. The annual turnover of the company's trade with the countries of the former USSR was, according to various sources, $3-4 billion. For comparison: all Russian exports in 1993 amounted to $43 billion. But in the same 1993, the company's position was shaken.

How is Glencore (formerly Marc Rich) organized from the inside? The founders of the company distributed management among three offices - in Baar (metal transactions and finance), London (oil, oil products and sugar) and Rotterdam (grain). But they buy and sell raw materials, earning money for the company, not offices, but relatively independent employees-traders. Each of them is an independent "combat unit", he has the right to sign and manages the company's funds within the agreed limits. As a rule, a trader works with one type of product in one region. In total, it is estimated that about 300 traders work for the company. They do not receive salaries, but bonuses, depending on the volume of transactions they have carried out. According to one of the current employees of the company, who spoke to Forbes on condition of anonymity, the lower limit of the annual income of a trader exceeds $1 million. All traders in one direction are accountable to a chief trader working in one of the head offices. The main traders in the company are now about 20-30, and all of them have a share in the capital. “The policy is this: if you work in a top position, you get a share, if you leave, sell your share to other tops,” says an employee of the company's Moscow office.

Traders are the backbone of the company all over the world. From 1998-2003, the Moscow office was run by aluminum trader Igor Vishnevsky, who reported to executive director and also aluminum deal specialist Willy Strothotte in Baar. Now the formal head of the Moscow headquarters is lawyer Yana Tikhonova, while neither traders nor financiers are subordinate to her. According to Forbes sources, the office is actually run by oil trader Vladimir Shcherbak, who in turn reports to the head of Glencore's London oil office, Alex Byrd.

Mark Rich ran the empire he created until 1993. By that time, the 60-year-old founder of the company was no longer as energetic as 20 years ago, he was painfully going through a divorce from his wife Denise, to whom he paid, according to some reports, $ 200 million in compensation, and, according to the company, lost his former grip. In addition, the very fact that the company was run by a fugitive from American justice blocked the company's access to the most profitable American consumers of raw materials. It ended with a "velvet revolution": a group of top traders, led by aluminum specialist Willy Strothotte and "oilmen" Dani Dreyfuss and Ari Silverberg, persuaded Rich to resign.

Rich sold his stake to the company's management (which, according to various estimates, ranged from 75% to 80%). The calculation of the "revolutionaries" turned out to be correct: shortly after the resignation of the founder, the company was able to open a fourth head office in the United States, in Stamford (Connecticut). Rich's entire package was divided among the leading traders. Now "no one owned either a controlling or simply a prevailing stake," says Vishnevsky. "First among equals" was the new CEO Willy Strothotte. In 1994 the company was renamed Glencore International AG.

Mark Rich himself took up investment by opening new company with the old name, Marc Rich Investments. And in 2001, US President Bill Clinton, a few hours before leaving the White House, pardoned Rich and Green (among 176 people). Later, Clinton justified himself by saying that the fugitive partners agreed to contribute $200 million to the treasury and were asked for by such prominent Israeli politicians as the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and former head of the Mossad intelligence service Shabtai Shavit. The American press also wrote about the $450,000 that Rich's ex-wife Denise previously donated to the Clinton Presidential Library (later Denise was a campaign sponsor for Hillary Clinton). The pardon caused a serious scandal, so Rich and Green chose not to return to the United States after all, remaining in Europe.

While traders were dividing power, privatization was just unfolding in Russia, the first financial and industrial groups were formed. Owners appeared at the enterprises, who began to scoop up all foreign trade operations for themselves, not wanting to give them at the mercy of third-party traders. “At some point, our business simply disappeared,” recalls Alexei Ivanushkin.

“In 1993, we decided to create an enterprise and went to all the largest firms,” recalled the former head of the board of directors of the Bratsk Aluminum Plant in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper.

Yuri Shleifshtein. - In Marc Rich we were told: you have only one opportunity - to trade through us, because we control this market. But Schleifstein found another possibility - he reached an agreement with brothers David and Simon Reuben, owners of the much smaller rival firm Trans World Metals. Rubens took a share Russian entrepreneurs brothers Lev and Mikhail Cherny, who helped them seize control over the export of the second largest Russian aluminum producer, KrAZ, and then over the Sayan and Novokuznetsk aluminum smelters. Black. In 1996, the peak year for aluminum exports from Russia, Glencore exported 750,000 tons of metal, and Trans World exported more than a million, Vishnevsky recalls.

The new management of Glencore in 1995-1996 fundamentally changes the company's strategy: if previously it was an almost pure trader who acquired industrial assets mainly to gain access to manufactured products, now the company begins to participate in the management of enterprises. In Russia, Glencore is buying up large stakes in metallurgical plants: the Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works, the Middle Urals copper smelter, and Dalpolimetall. The company is trying to compensate for the lost time with significant investments in production, but the idea fails.

And in 1998 Russian division Glencore completely stops working for the future. After the collapse financial markets in August, the head office gave the order to sell Russian assets and focus on knocking out debts from suppliers. Not everything was returned: for example, $25 million allocated for the purchase of oil from RAO MES, which gained notoriety in connection with the reconstruction of the Kremlin and trade with Iraq, disappeared forever. “Not a single ton of oil was delivered, all the money was stolen,” laments one former Glencore oil trader. By the early 2000s, Glencore had sold all its industrial assets to Russian companies. The company managed to develop production outside of Russia much better: the Swiss raw materials company Xstrata, which Glencore managers began managing in 1996, has become one of the largest mining groups in the world in 10 years, operating in Australia, Chile, South Africa and a dozen other countries, and became the world's largest exporter of thermal coals, a major producer of copper, nickel, ferrochromium and zinc.

In 2000, Glencore got a chance to reclaim the role largest exporter Russian aluminum: the worst competitor, the Trans World group, had by this time been expelled from Russia. Its factories were bought by Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich. Together with Oleg Deripaska, they created Russian Aluminum. The newborn aluminum company had practically no sales network of its own abroad, so about 80% of exports had to be carried out through Western traders. “At first it was difficult for them, and in the first two years after the formation of Rusal, Glencore sold a fairly large amount of their aluminum,” says Vishnevsky, and immediately makes a reservation: “The margin, however, was completely different already.”

Rusal CEO Alexander Bulygin, in his first interview after his appointment, announced his intention to reduce dependence on traders and fulfilled his promise: last year their share in the company's sales fell to 15%. But Glencore did not miss its chance: this year, together with SUAL and Rusal, it became one of the co-owners of the combined company Russian Aluminum (in exchange for its alumina plants in Ireland, Italy and Jamaica, as well as an aluminum plant in Sweden ). Now it is likely to claim the sale of the said 15% of aluminum produced, which is 600,000 tons of metal per year for about $1.7 billion. But, according to sources in the company's Moscow office, Glencore will earn only intermediary interest on this aluminum.

In 2002, a new and almost imperceptible change of power takes place in Glencore: another main trader, this time coal, Ivan Glasenberg, becomes the company's executive director. The “outgoing sells everything” principle is unshakable, so Willi Strothogte takes the place of the chairman of the board of directors - “reigns but does not rule”, waiting for his colleagues to raise enough money to settle with him. The place of the head of the London office, traditionally the second person in the company, has recently been occupied by oil trader Alex Bird, who for many years supervised the oil business in Russia. Perhaps it was Byrd who persuaded the Glencore management to decide to take part in the business of a large Russian oil company. Until recently, Glencore had only a stake in the small Nobel Oil, which produces oil in the north of the Komi Republic: the Swiss company was afraid to invade this branch of the Russian economy, which is dangerous for foreign investors. But in 2003, Glencore allocates to the owner of the Russneft oil company Mikhail Gutseriev, according to estimates, at least $300 million for the purchase of new fields, receiving in return from 40% to 49% in three producing subsidiaries of the oil company: Varyoganneft, Ulyanovskneft and Nafta-Ulyanovsk.

What for? The company needed new oil, says one of the Forbes interlocutors in the Moscow office of Glencore. The company has lost supplies from Yukos, "near-state" oilmen prefer to deal with the trading company Gunvor of Gennady Timchenko, an old acquaintance of President Putin... According to the manager of the Moscow office of Glencore, the Swiss company does not interfere in the management of Russneft, does not claim dividends, being content only the fact that all of the company's export oil passes through Glencore (Russneft has been exporting about 66% of the oil produced in recent years, worth about $2.5 billion a year).

Investments turned out to be really risky: in November 2006, the Prosecutor General's Office opened criminal cases on the fact of illegal business against several subsidiaries of NK Russneft, accusing them of tax evasion, and in January 2007 a criminal case appeared on the fact of non-payment of taxes by Russneft itself. ". As this issue of Forbes went to press, law enforcement filed charges of tax evasion and illegal business already Gutseriev. “Gutseriev promised to solve everything,” an employee of the Moscow office of Glencore admitted even before the latest events, “but there are rumors that everything can be sold to some state-owned company.”

It appears that Glencore's role in Russian oil exports is of serious concern to the company's management. The Swiss office of the company, in full accordance with the traditions of corporate secrecy, ignored most of Forbes' questions, and answered the question about oil. "In 2006, Glencore transported about 34 million tons of oil and oil products from Russia," said company spokeswoman Lottie Grenacher. In addition to Russneft, Glencore trades oil to Tatneft, Bashneft, TNK-BP, “as well as a number of smaller companies,” she added.

Times have changed. Now, in order to get raw materials for export, it is necessary to negotiate not with the directors of factories. For all its gigantic resources and capabilities, Glencore cannot compete with the country's current main oil trader, Gunvor, controlled by former colleague of President Putin Gennady Timchenko, which sells, according to estimates, from 70 million tons to 80 million tons of Russian oil per year for $ 32-37 billion. (for reference: all Russian exports in 2006 - 248 million tons). “Glencore are foreigners, and from a certain point it ruined their lives,” says the manager of one of the competing firms. “They have access to Polyanka (the street in Moscow where the head office of Transneft is located. - Forbes), but higher- No".

Now Glencore is not a monopoly and not even the largest trader in Russian raw materials, as it was in the early 1990s. For her, this may be a loss, but any other trader would certainly be happy to take the place in the commodity market of Russia, which is occupied by the "loser" Glencore.

Youth

Mark David Rich (real name Reich) was born in 1934 in Antwerp (Belgium) in the family of a Jewish scrap metal dealer. In 1941, the Reich family, fleeing the Nazis, first left for France, then, in 1942, for the USA, changing their surname to a more "American" one - Rich. In 1952, Mark graduated from the prestigious Rhodes School in Manhattan and entered New York University, however, after studying there for only one semester, he dropped out and got a job at Philipp Brothers, the world's largest commodity trading company at that time. This was insisted on by Mark's father, who had with this firm business relationship even before the war. Starting from a junior position in the Metals Department, Rich quickly worked his way into independent traders. His first deal was a lucrative contract in 1958 for the purchase of Cuban mercury. Shortly thereafter, Rich heads the Bolivian office of Philipp Brothers. In 1967, Rich is transferred to Madrid, where he first meets another company trader, Pinkus (Pinky) Green. They start working together.

The most resounding success of Rich and Green was the conclusion of direct contracts for the purchase of oil from Arab producers, bypassing the Seven Sisters, the largest international oil companies, which dominated the market at that time. It was oil that caused their break with Philipp Brothers: in the spring of 1973, Rich and Green learned from their sources in Arab countries about OPEC's intention to sharply increase oil prices, the company buys it at a price slightly higher than the market price and earns a lot of money after the increase. So huge that the company's management refuses to pay Rich and Green their percentage. They leave Philipp Brothers and in the spring of 1974, having enticed several traders with them, they organize Marc Rich + Co AG in Zug and start an all-out war with Philipp Brothers, attracting former clients. They will eventually win this war: in the early 1980s, Philipp Brothers merges with Salomon Brothers and ceases to exist as an independent trading company(now it is one of the divisions of Citigroup).

Russian authorities.

Glencore is one of the world's largest commodity traders, including energy, metals and products Agriculture. It also works with Russian oil through its subsidiary Ros-GIP. Glencore is a long-term partner of Rosneft, and after this deal it will receive a new long-term contract from it. Besides, this company already owns 25% in RussNeft.

The night before, the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, reported to President Vladimir Putin that the deal to privatize the state-owned stake in the company had been completed. The strategic investor was a consortium of Glencore and Qatar Sovereign Fund (QIA). Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the price of the deal was 10.5 billion euros.

However, Glencore specified that 10.2 billion euros will be paid for a stake in Rosneft, of which 300 million euros will be in the form of its own shares. The rest of the deal is to be secured by the Qatar Fund and banks. As Reuters later reported, the Italian bank Intesa will partially finance the purchase of Rosneft. The whole transaction is currently in the final stage and will be closed in mid-December.

As for the new contract with Rosneft, it will be valid for 5 years and will increase the trader's portfolio by 220,000 barrels per day.

Against the backdrop of such reports, Glencore shares went up on Thursday morning, TASS reports. In the first hour of morning trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, they have risen in price by more than 3%.

The Guardian newspaper stressed that the news of the deal came as a "surprise to the markets" as the company recently low prices in raw materials struggled with the debt burden, which at one point reached $30 billion. Even the fact that Glencore's chief executive announced in December that active cost-cutting efforts had been completed did not affect market expectations.

Bloomberg also calls this deal "unexpected" and notes that against its background, EU sanctions look "very shabby." In turn, The Wall Street Journal emphasizes that the deal was a "boon" for the Russian president, "whose country is under US and EU sanctions" in connection with the situation in Ukraine.

Glencore is associated with Abramovich, Berezovsky, Deripaska and owns an 8.75% stake in RusAl

Glencore International AG (formerly Marc Rich + Co AG) is a trading company and one of the world's largest suppliers of commodities and rare earths. In the early 1990s, it was the main seller of Russian oil, aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, coal, as well as a supplier of grain and sugar to the country.

This largest non-public company on the planet (its turnover in 2006 was $ 116.5 billion) was founded in April 1974 by American entrepreneur Mark Rich and Pincus Green and was originally built on the principles of secrecy, high-risk and aggressive policy.

Mark Rich, having come to Russia, took advantage of the lack of experience in working under free market from his partners and received huge profits from transactions.

In 1993, Rich sold a majority stake in own company its management, after which it was renamed Glencore International and subsequently became the largest commodity trader, remaining the largest non-public company in the world.

Her business fits into one simple scheme: she buys raw materials from mining companies and sells them to processors.

As Forbes recalls, for the first decades, Marc Rich + Co traded Iranian oil, bypassing the American embargo, bought nickel and gold in Cuba, traded with disgraced Libya and South Africa, when it came under international sanctions due to apartheid.

During the 1973 oil crisis, the partners made millions by running oil through dozens of offshore firms they had created.

In 1983, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani (the future mayor of New York) authorized the arrest of Rich and Green, and the charge totaled 65 counts, including tax evasion for $ 48 million. Partners fled the United States, Rich took Spanish citizenship, Green - Bolivian.

Marc Rich turned out to be the only company that decided to supply grain to the USSR, despite the international ban due to the war in Afghanistan. By the time the economic system of the Soviet Union began to collapse, Mark Rich was already a long-standing and trusted friend of Soviet party officials and leaders of foreign trade associations. Therefore, in the early 1990s, Marc Rich easily became the largest player in the new Russian market.

At that time, the domestic price of aluminum in Russia was 5-10% of its market price in the West. Therefore, Marc Rich's profit was measured in hundreds of percent. As soon as in 1992, by decree of President Boris Yeltsin, tolling was allowed - the processing of foreign tolling raw materials by Russian enterprises for an agreed fee, Marc Rich adopted this tool for extracting super profits. Thanks to Russian tolling, a third of all aluminum on the world exchange market was supplied by Marc Rich + Co.

From 1989 to 1993, the annual turnover of Marc Rich's trade with the countries of the former USSR was about 4 billion dollars. And all Russian exports at that time amounted to 43 billion dollars.

However, in 1993, Rich sold his stake (from 75% to 80%) to the company's management. Rich's entire package was divided among the leading traders. In 1994 the company was renamed Glencore International AG.

In 2001, US President Bill Clinton pardoned Rich and Green just hours before leaving the White House. Clinton later explained that the fugitive partners agreed to contribute $200 million to the treasury and were asked for by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and former head of the Mossad intelligence service Shabtai Shavit.

In 1995, the new management of Glencore changed the company's strategy - now it participated in the management of enterprises, buying up large stakes in Russian metallurgical plants, investing heavily in them.

In 2000, Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska, who created Russian Aluminum, began to carry out part of the export through Glencore. In 2007, Glencore, together with SUAL and Rusal, became one of the co-owners of the united company Russian Aluminum.

In 2003, Glencore allocated about $300 million to the owner of the oil company RussNeft, Mikhail Gutseriev, for the purchase of new fields, receiving in return from 40% to 49% in its three producing subsidiaries.

In 2007, on the basis of Rusal, Sual and the aluminum assets of Glencore, UC Rusal was created, in which Deripaska received 66%.

Glencore currently owns an 8.75% stake in RusAl.

In 2013, after the oil trader Gunvor lost Rosneft's export contracts, Glencore took the lead in the Russian oil market, gaining the right to sell 70% of Rosneft's oil. In June 2013, legendary commodity trader Mark Rich died in Switzerland at the age of 79.

In the spring of 2016, Glencore entered the top ten largest buyers of Russian oil through its subsidiary Ros-GIP Limited, from which oil purchases amounted to $2.9 billion.

Affiliated companies Glencore (Canada)[d]

Glencore International AG(abbreviation for Gl obal En energy co modities and Re sources, translation into Russian “Global Energy Commodities and Resources” former name Marc Rich + Co AG) is a Swiss trading company, one of the world's largest suppliers of raw materials and rare earth materials. In 2006, the company ranked 6th among European companies in terms of turnover. It is one of the largest oil traders in the world.

Story

The company called Marc Rich + Co was founded in the town of Baar in the Swiss canton of Zug in April 1974 by the American entrepreneur Marc Rich and Pincus Green.

Marc Rich remained the only company to supply grain to the USSR, despite an international ban due to the war in Afghanistan.

1989 to 1993 Marc Rich was one of the largest buyers of Russian oil, aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, coal, supplying grain and sugar in return. Its annual turnover of trade with the countries of the former USSR was, according to various sources, 3-4 billion US dollars. For comparison: all Russian exports in 1993 amounted to 43 billion.

Mark Rich managed the company until 1993 . The fact that the company was run by a fugitive from American justice cut off its access to American consumers of raw materials. As a result, a group of top traders led by aluminum specialists Willy Strothotte and petrochemicals Dany Dreyfus and Ari Silverberg persuaded Rich to resign. In 1993-1994, the remaining company executives bought out Rich's shareholding (which, according to various estimates, ranged from 75 to 80%) from Rich. The reason for Rich's departure was new accusations of illegal oil trade with Iran (according to another version - with Iraq) and tax evasion.

Shortly after the resignation of the founder, the company was able to open a fourth head office - in the United States, in Stamford (Connecticut). Rich's package was divided among the leading traders.

Willy Strothotte became the new Managing Director. In 1994 the company was renamed to Glencore International AG .

In December 2016, the company became part of the owners of the Russian company Rosneft as part of the privatization of a 19.5% stake owned by Russia. Glencore on par with Qatar Sovereign Fund each have 50% of the privatization stake of 19.5% of Rosneft. The deal amounted to 10.2 billion euros. Reuters called this deal "the largest transfer of state property into private hands since the early post-Soviet years."

Company internals

The founders of the company distributed management among three offices - in the Swiss city of Baar, transactions with metals are made and financial issues are resolved, transactions with oil, oil products and sugar are carried out in the London office, and the grain department of Glencore Grain Rotterdam is located in the Rotterdam office. But they buy and sell goods, earning money for the company, not offices, but relatively independent employees-traders. Each of them is an independent "combat unit", he has the right to sign and, within the agreed limits, manages the company's funds. Most often, a trader works with one type of product in one region. In total, it is estimated that about 300 traders work for the company. Their personal income does not consist of salaries, but bonuses, depending on the volume of transactions they have carried out; at the same time, the lower limit of the trader's annual income exceeds $1 million. All traders in one direction are accountable to the main trader working in one of the head offices. The main traders in the company are now from 20 to 30, and all of them have a share in the capital. “The policy is this: you work in a top position - you get a share, you leave - sell your share to other tops.”

Owners and management

Shareholders - management of the company (about 500 partners). 65 employees of Glencore own 58% of the company, that is, about $35 billion, based on a capitalization of about $60 billion. Major Shareholders:

Moreover, financial director Glencore Stephen Culmin(Steven Kalmin) owns 1% of the company, or 70.7 million shares worth about $600 million

In early February 2012, it became known that the owners of Glencore had agreed to merge it with the Swiss mining company Xstrata through an exchange of shares (at this point, Glencore already owned a 34% stake in Xstrata). Upon completion of the transaction, it was supposed to create the world's largest coal exporter for power plants and a leading copper producer. The merger resulted in a $90 billion company called Glencore Xstrata International.

Company activities and assets

Representing mining companies and companies around the world, Glencore supplies metals, minerals, crude oil, refined petroleum products, coal, agricultural products to its customers in the automotive, metals, food and energy industries. The company owns 10.3% metallurgical company Russian Aluminum, shares in subsidiaries Russian oil company RussNeft, a number of mining assets (zinc deposits in Peru and Kazakhstan, coal deposits in South Africa, copper deposits in the Philippines).

So in March 2007, the aluminum assets of Glencore (12% of the company's total ownership) were merged with the assets of the Russian aluminum company Russian Aluminum and SUAL into the world's largest aluminum company Russian Aluminum (United Company Rusal). The combined company became the largest producer of aluminum and alumina in the world. Annual production is expected to be about 4 million tons of aluminum and 11 million tons of alumina. According to Rusal (2011), Glencore owns 8.75% of its shares through Amokenga Holdings, a subsidiary of Glencore.

In 1996, Glencore bought out a stake in the Swiss raw materials company Xstrata, which was taken over by Glencore managers, in 10 years Xstrata has become one of the largest mining groups in the world, operating in Australia, Chile, South Africa and a dozen more countries, and has become the largest in the world an exporter of thermal coals , a major producer of copper , nickel , ferrochromium and zinc .

The company holds a 35% stake in Swiss mining company Xstrata, valued at about $23 billion, as of February 2011. In addition to the shares of Xstrata and UC Rusal, Glencore also owns 51% - Kazzinc.

Lion's share Glencore's revenue - 92%, which is $ 133.9 billion, is formed through trading. The share of production in the company's EBITDA is 32% ($1.9 billion).

The structure of the company

The company has three main business areas: Metals and minerals, Energy products, Agricultural products:

Each of these areas is in turn subdivided into the following departments:

Metals and minerals: about 30% of revenue, which is $45.2 billion.

Aluminum. Bauxites are led by Steven Blumgart and Gary Fegel.
Ferroalloys. Nickel - leaders Christian Wolfensberger and Stuart Cutler.
Zinc. Copper. Lead

Energy products: 61.6% of revenue, which is $89.3 billion.

Oil - Head Alex Bird
Coal

Agricultural products: 7.1% of revenue, which is $10.4 billion.

not subdivided into departments. In this business line, the company is engaged in wheat, corn, barley, rice, vegetable oil, flour, sugar and biodiesel - the head is Chris Mahoney.

Glencore's main agricultural assets are concentrated in the CIS, Australia, Paraguay and Argentina, where the company produced 699,604 tons (+6.4%) of grains, corn and oilseeds in 2010.

Performance indicators

Glencore in 2010 increased net profit by 39%, to $3.799 billion. Revenue for the year increased by 36%, to $144.978 billion. EBITDA - by 58%, to $6.201 billion EBIT increased by 60%, to $5.29 billion.

The company itself officially discloses only consolidated revenue ($152.2 billion in 2008), assets ($61.3 billion) and shareholders' funds ($15.4 billion), in 2008 net profit fell by 8.4% to $4.75 billion . .

Company IPO

In April 2011, Glencore chief executive Ivan Glasenberg announced plans for the company's initial public offering on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges. As a result of this issue, the company expected to raise about $12.1 billion, as a result of which the total value of the enterprise should have reached about $60 billion. In the media, this placement was described as the largest IPO in the world in 2011.

The order book was fully signed on the first day due to strong investor demand. Investors submitted bids for the entire volume of placement, including an option for the organizing banks.

Shares between the two stock exchanges were distributed in an 80/20 ratio: Glencore intends to place shares worth about $8.8 billion on the London stock exchange, and a package worth up to 2.2 billion is intended for the Hong Kong stock exchange. Stock markets hold 15-20% of Glencore International AG shares.

Tony Hayward ( Tony Hayward) is a senior independent director at Glencore.
Simon Murray ( Simon Murray) is a non-executive chairman of the board of directors.

With a share price of 530 pence, Glencore's capitalization was 37.1 billion pounds ($59.9 billion). The total amount of funds raised reached about $10 billion.

As a result of the initial public offering in terms of capitalization, Glencore ranked 7th among the world's mining companies.

Notes

Glencore International on the Forbes Global 2000 List
Who we are (unavailable link - story) . Glencore. Retrieved March 15, 2015. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015.
https://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/invest/company/profile_page_e.asp?WidCoID=0805&WidCoAbbName=&Month=&langcode=e
Glencore International. Profession: intermediary. forbes.ru
Six Swiss companies feature among the biggest companies in Europe according to a survey Swissinfo, October 18, 2006
, With. 214.
"We forge our own luck" - Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore (unavailable link)
Fedorinova Yu., Khripunov K. Glencore comes out of the shadows (unavailable link). // Vedomosti. - No. 112 (2382). - June 22, 2009.
Putin: controlling stake in Rosneft will remain with the state RIA News(December 7, 2016). Retrieved 7 December 2016.

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