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 Mark Rich and called Marc Rich and Co. at the time. 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 around the world, and owned by the company factories and terminals - 55 thousand more 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 disclosed some information about itself, having carried out a successful IPO, which turned its top managers into billionaires (at least on paper).

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

It is widely known that Glencore has more tankers than ships in the entire British fleet, but in addition, the company is also a "forge" for commodity traders: many "stars" of this 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 now CEO 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. Glazenberg himself still does not feel very 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 in a year and attracted huge market power. At the same time, however, there was talk that such a placement meant that the “cycle” in commodity trading had ended and interest in this sector was declining. Although Glencore went public in May at 530p a share, the price has dropped somewhat since then: the shares are now worth around 400p.

Glencore made a name for itself through risky business and by operating in sectors in which few dared venture. This strategy has often been successful, although as recently as last month the company found itself in the middle of a confrontation 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 all oil consumed in the world daily, in addition, it is one of the largest suppliers of zinc, lead and nickel, as well as a leading exporter of grain from Europe, countries the former USSR and Australia.

Although she started out as a simple trader in oil and metals, the company quickly realized the importance of acquiring industrial assets. Since the late 1980s, Glencore has bought many of them, from agricultural farms in South America to copper mines in Zambia. Therefore, today a significant part of 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 stated that the merger with Xstrata would be "great benefit", but so far others are blocking the deal. minority shareholders companies.

Based on materials

In the early 1990s, she was the main seller of Russian metals and oil. Why did she lose ground?

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? It is not so easy to get them: 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 more turbid the water, the larger the fish that we catch. Once 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 the dictators rejected by the world. In the early 1990s, in the era of collapse Russian economy, it was the main exporter of Russian aluminum, earning hundreds of percent of the profits.

Meet Glencore International, formerly Marc Rich + Co. After changing owners, breaking its teeth on young Russian oligarchs and losing its influence in Russia to a large extent, the company has found a way to stay in our market: it participates in the business of large oil and aluminum companies. But how strong is the status quo?

Glencore (an abbreviation for Global Energy Commodities and Resources) is headquartered in Baar, a town in the tiny Swiss canton of Zug (the entire canton is four times the size of Moscow), formerly one of the poorest in the confederation. It was poverty that forced the cantonal authorities in the 1960s to achieve the right to adopt extremely liberal tax legislation, favorable for international holdings operating outside Switzerland: they do not pay income tax in the canton (they 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 advantages of both tax-free jurisdiction and the status of a solid Swiss company, and not a "laundry" from the Cayman Islands.

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

The first decades of Marc Rich + Co-plot for the adventure novel (see also "The Young Years"). The company traded Iranian oil in circumvention of the American embargo, bought nickel and gold in Castro's Cuba, traded with disgraced Libya and with South Africa when it was under international sanctions due to apartheid. During the 1973 oil crisis, the partners made millions by pumping oil through dozens of offshore firms they created. In 1983, Federal Attorney Rudolph Giuliani (the future mayor of New York) authorized the arrest of Rich and Green, with a charge of 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, disregarding 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 longtime and trusted friend of Soviet party officials and leaders of foreign trade associations. Therefore, in the early 1990s, when the water in Russia became rather cloudy, Marc Rich easily began to fish very large fish in it.

"Ours did not yet understand market trading, factories did not have money, they asked banks, but banks did not take aluminum as collateral. Mage Rich came with money and took aluminum," businessman Igor Vishnevsky recalls in an interview with Forbes, in early 1990 - the head of the aluminum department, and from 1998 to 2003 - the entire Moscow representative office of Glencore International The internal 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. no one dares to name operations with Russian raw materials in the early 1990s, they only say that it was measured in hundreds of percent.As soon as tolling was allowed by the decree of President Boris Yeltsin in 1992 - the processing of foreign raw materials by Russian enterprises for an agreed payment, Marc Rich took on board this tool of extracting super profits. ”About the practice, which was usual for that time, says a senior manager of one of the Syrian raw material companies, who worked for the Swiss 15 years ago: “They imported alumina, which was not taxed, paid only VAT on the cost of processing, which could always be underestimated by agreeing with the refinery. And officials were simply paid rent and almost all of the aluminum was exported. " 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.

Although Marc Rich traded a full range of commodities and commodities, oil has always been her greatest 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 the processing of aluminum: it was monopolized by the foreign trade association Soyuznefteexport, created back in the 1920s. To get the oil, Mage Rich had to set up production JVs, supplying equipment and modernizing several refineries in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The difference between the domestic and foreign prices of petroleum products more than covered the costs.

The matter, however, was not limited to investments. The technology for 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 with Arab sheikhs were held here. 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 luxury London hotel, a yacht with an orchestra was rented, how Mark Rich's men 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 Bread Industry of the USSR, and soon Marc Rich began to barter Argentine grain for Russian oil products.

The Moscow office of the company gradually began to develop: in 1992 it employed about 20 people, and after a year and a half - more than a hundred. “Mostly MGIMO graduates and former foreign trade people came with their own contracts,” recalls general director Mechel Alexey Ivanushkin, who rose to the 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 the security of a 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. According to various sources, the company's annual trade turnover with the countries of the former USSR amounted to $ 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 does Glencore (formerly Marc Rich) work from the inside? The founders of the company divided the management among three offices - in Baar (metals and finance), London (oil, petroleum products and sugar) and Rotterdam (grain). But they buy and sell raw materials, making 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, disposes of the company's funds. As a rule, a trader works with one type of product in one region. In total, it is estimated that the company employs about 300 traders. They receive not salaries, but bonuses, depending on the volume of transactions they carry out. According to one of the current employees of the company, who spoke to Forbes on condition of anonymity, the lower bound for a trader's annual income exceeds $ 1 million. All traders in one area report to the main trader who works in one of the head offices. The main traders in the company are now about 20-30, and they all have a share in the capital. "The policy is as follows: you work in a top position, you get a share, and you leave, sell your share to other tops," says an employee of the Moscow office of the company.

Traders are the backbone of the company around the world. In 1998-2003, the Moscow office was headed by the "aluminum" trader Igor Vishnevsky, who was subordinate to the executive director and also a specialist in aluminum transactions, Willi Stroothotte in Baar. Now the formal head of the Moscow headquarters is a 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 ruled 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, whom he paid, according to some sources, $ 200 million compensation, and, as the company says, lost his former grip. In addition, the very fact that the company was run by a fugitive from American justice blocked the firm's access to the most monetary American consumers of raw materials. It ended with a "velvet revolution": a group of top traders led by aluminum specialist Willie Stroothotte and oilmen Dany Dreyfus and Ari Silverberg convinced 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). The entire package of Rich was divided among themselves by the leading traders. Now "no one owned either a controlling or just a prevailing stake," Vishnevsky argues. The new CEO, Willi Stroothotte, is the first among equals. 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 (176 of them). Clinton later made the excuse that the runaway 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 the former head of the Mossad secret service Shabtai Shavit. The American press also wrote about the $ 450,000 that Rich's ex-wife Denise donated earlier to the Clinton Presidential Library (Denise later sponsored Hillary Clinton's election campaign). The pardon caused a serious scandal, so Rich and Green chose not to return to the United States, remaining in Europe.

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

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

Yuri Shlyaifstein. “Marc Rich told us: you have only one opportunity - to trade through us, because we control this market”. But Schleifstein found another opportunity - he negotiated with brothers David and Simon Ruben, owners of a much smaller rival firm Trans World Metals. Rubens took a share Russian entrepreneurs brothers Lev and Mikhail Chernykh, who helped them seize control over the export of the second largest Russian aluminum producer, KrAZ, and then over the Sayan and Novokuznetsk aluminum plants. By the mid-1990s, Glencore had become only the second exporter of aluminum from Russia, losing leadership to the Rubens and Black. In 1996, the peak in terms of aluminum exports from Russia, Glencore exported 750,000 tons of metal, and Trans World - more than a million, recalls Vishnevsky.

The new management of Glencore in 1995-1996 radically changed the company's strategy: if earlier 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 buys up large stakes in metallurgical plants: Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, Sredneuralsky Copper Smelting Plant, Dalpolimetal. The company is trying to compensate for the lost time by significant investments in production, but the venture fails.

And in 1998 Russian division Glencore will stop working for the future altogether. After the collapse of financial markets in August, the head office gave the order to sell off Russian assets and focus on knocking out debt from suppliers. It was not possible to return everything: for example, the $ 25 million allocated for the purchase of oil from RAO MES, which received scandalous notoriety in connection with the reconstruction of the Kremlin and trade with Iraq, disappeared irrevocably. “Not a ton of oil was delivered, all the money was stolen,” complains one of Glencore's former oil traders. By the early 2000s, Glencore sold all of its industrial assets to Russian companies. The company was much better at developing production outside of Russia: the Swiss raw materials company Xstrata, which Glencore managers began to manage in 1996, in 10 years has become one of the largest mining groups in the world, operating in Australia, Chile, South Africa and a dozen other countries. and became the world's largest exporter of thermal coal, a major producer of copper, nickel, ferrochrome and zinc.

In 2000, Glencore got a chance to reclaim the role. the 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 practically did not have its own sales network 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 quite a large amount of their aluminum,” Vishnevsky says, and immediately makes a reservation: “The margin, however, was quite different.”

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 united company Russian Aluminum (in exchange for its alumina refineries in Ireland, Italy and Jamaica, as well as an aluminum plant in Sweden ). Now it is likely to claim the sale of the aforementioned 15% of the aluminum produced, which is 600,000 tons of metal per year for about $ 1.7 billion. But, according to sources in the Moscow office of the company, Glencore will earn only intermediary interest on this aluminum.

In 2002, a new and almost imperceptible change of power took place at Glencore: another chief trader, this time coal, Ivan Glasenberg, became the CEO of the company. The principle “outgoing sells everything” is unshakable, so Willie Strothogte takes the place of 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 has been in charge of the oil business in Russia for many years. Perhaps it was Byrd who convinced Glencore's management 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 sector of the Russian economy, which is dangerous for foreign investors. But in 2003, Glencore allocated to the owner of the oil company Russneft Mikhail Gutseriev, according to estimates, at least $ 300 million for the purchase of new fields, receiving in return from 40% to 49% in three production subsidiaries of the oil company: Varieganneft, Ulyanovskneft "And" Nafta-Ulyanovsk ".

What for? The company needed new oil, says one of Forbes' interlocutors at the Moscow office of Glencore. The company has lost supplies to YUKOS, the "near-state" oilmen prefer to deal with the trading company Gunvor of Gennady Timchenko, an old acquaintance of President Putin ... 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, amounting to about $ 2.5 billion a year).

The investments turned out to be really risky: in November 2006, the Prosecutor General's Office opened criminal cases on the fact of illegal entrepreneurship 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 ". When this issue of Forbes was going to press, law enforcement agencies were charged with tax evasion and illegal business already to Gutseriev. "Gutseriev promised to solve everything," admitted an employee of the Moscow office of Glencore even before the latest events, "but there are rumors that everything could be sold to some state company."

It seems that the company's management is seriously concerned about Glencore's role in Russian oil exports. The Swiss office of the firm, in full accordance with the traditions of corporate secrecy, ignored most of Forbes' questions, 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 from Tatneft, Bashneft, TNK-BP, “as well as a number of small companies,” she added.

Times have changed. Now, in order to get raw materials for export, you need to negotiate not with the directors of factories. With all its gigantic resources and capabilities, Glencore cannot compare with the country's current main oil trader - Gunvor, controlled by a 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 moment it ruined their lives,” says the manager of one of the competing firms. “They have exits to Polyanka (the street in Moscow where the head office of Transneft is located. - Forbes), but above- No".

Now Glencore is not a monopoly or even the largest trader of Russian raw materials, as in the early 1990s. For her, this may be a loss, but any other trader would certainly be happy to take the place on the Russian commodity market, 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, left first for France, then, in 1942, for the United States, changing their surname to a more “American” one - Rich. In 1952, Mark graduated from the prestigious Rhodes School of Manhattan and entered New York University, however, after studying there for only one semester, he dropped out and got a job at the world's largest commodity trading company Philipp Brothers at the time. This was insisted on by Mark's father, who had with this company business relationship even before the war. Starting from a junior position in the metals department, Rich quickly made his way into independent traders. His first deal was a lucrative contract in 1958 for the purchase of Cuban mercury. Shortly thereafter, Rich heads up 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.

Rich and Green's most resounding success was the conclusion of direct contracts for the purchase of oil from Arab producers, bypassing the then dominant Seven Sisters, the largest international oil companies. It was oil that caused them to 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 after the increase makes a lot of money. 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 lured away 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 will receive a new long-term contract from it. In addition, this company already has a 25% stake 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 is the consortium of Glencore and the Qatar Sovereign Fund (QIA). Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the deal was worth € 10.5 billion.

However, Glencore clarified that 10.2 billion euros will be paid for the 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 Foundation and banks. As Reuters later reported, Italian bank Intesa will partially finance the purchase of Rosneft. The entire deal 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 thousand barrels per day.

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

The Guardian newspaper emphasizes that the news of the deal came as "a surprise to the markets" as the company recently low prices on raw materials struggled with a debt load, which at one point reached $ 30 billion. Markets' expectations were not even affected by the fact that Glencore's chief executive said in December that active cost-cutting efforts have been completed.

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

Glencore is associated with Abramovich, Berezovsky, Deripaska and owns 8.75% of RusAl shares

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 Pinkus Green and was originally built on the principles of secrecy, high-risk and aggressive policies.

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

In 1993, Rich sold a majority stake in own company her 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 reminds, 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 was under international sanctions due to apartheid.

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

In 1983, Federal Attorney Rudolph Giuliani (the future mayor of New York) authorized the arrest of Rich and Green, with a charge of 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 fall apart, Mark Rich was already a long-term 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 profits were measured in hundreds of percent. As soon as in 1992 by the decree of President Boris Yeltsin tolling was allowed - the processing of foreign customer-owned raw materials by Russian enterprises for an agreed payment, Marc Rich adopted this tool for extracting excess profits. Thanks to Russian tolling, one third of all aluminum on the world exchange market was supplied by Marc Rich + Co.

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

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

In 2001, US President Bill Clinton pardoned Rich and Green a few 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 secret service Shabtai Shavit.

In 1995, the new management of Glencore changed the strategy of the company - now it took part in the management of enterprises, buying up large stakes in Russian metallurgical plants, making significant investments in them.

In 2000, Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska, who created Russian Aluminum, began to conduct 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 Russneft oil company, Mikhail Gutseriev, to buy new fields, receiving in return from 40% to 49% in its three producing subsidiaries.

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

Glencore currently owns 8.75% of RusAl's shares.

In 2013, after the oil trader Gunvor lost the export contracts of Rosneft, Glencore took the place of the leader 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 the volume of oil purchases amounted to $ 2.9 billion.

Affiliated companies Glencore (Canada)[d]

Glencore International AG(abbreviation from Gl obal En ergy Co mmodities and Re sources, Russian translation of "Global Energy Commodities and Resources" former name Marc Rich + Co AG) is a Swiss trading company, one of the world's largest suppliers of commodities and rare earths. In 2006, the company ranked 6th among European companies in terms of turnover. He is one of the largest oil traders in the world.

History

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

Marc rich remained the only company supplying grain to the USSR, despite the international ban due to the war in Afghanistan.

1989 to 1993 Marc rich was one of the largest buyers of Russian oil, aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, coal, supplying grain and sugar in return. Its annual trade turnover 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 ran the company until 1993. The fact that the company was run by a fugitive from American justice cut off access to American consumers of raw materials. As a result, a group of top traders led by aluminum specialists Willy Stroothotte and petrochemicals Dani Dreyfus and Ari Silverberg convinced Rich to step down. In 1993-1994, the remaining executives of the company bought out the block of shares belonging to him (according to various estimates, from 75 to 80%) from Rich. The reason for Rich's departure was new charges of illegal oil trade with Iran (according to another version - with Iraq) and tax evasion.

Soon after the resignation of the founder, the company was able to open its fourth head office - in the United States, in Stamford (Connecticut). Rich's package was shared by leading traders.

Willie Stroothotte became the new CEO. In 1994 the company was renamed to Glencore International AG .

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

Internal structure of the company

The founders of the company divided the management between three offices - in the Swiss city of Baar, transactions with metals and financial issues are carried out, transactions with oil, petroleum 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, making 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, disposes of the company's funds. Most often, a trader works with one type of product in one region. In total, it is estimated that the company employs about 300 traders. Their personal income does not consist of salaries, but bonuses, depending on the volume of transactions carried out by them; at the same time, the lower limit of a 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 now range from 20 to 30, and they all have a share in the capital. “The policy is as follows: if you work in a top position, you get a share, if you leave, sell your share to other tops.”

Owners and management

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

Besides, CFO Glencore Stephen Culmin(Steven Kalmin) owns 1% of the company, or 70.7 million shares, which are worth about $ 600 million

At the beginning of February 2012, it became known that the owners of Glencore had agreed to merge it with the Swiss mining company Xstrata by way of an exchange of shares (at that moment Glencore already owned 34% of Xstrata's shares). Following the completion of the deal, the world's largest exporter of coal for power plants and a leading producer of copper were supposed to be created. The merger resulted in a $ 90 billion company called Glencore Xstrata International.

Company activities and assets

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

Thus, in March 2007, Glencore's aluminum assets (12% of the company's total ownership) were merged with the assets of the Russian aluminum company Russian Aluminum and SUAL to form the world's largest aluminum company, Russian Aluminum (United Company Rusal). The combined company became the largest aluminum and alumina producer in the world. Annual production is expected to be around 4 million tonnes of aluminum and 11 million tonnes 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 started by Glencore managers, over 10 years Xstrata has grown into one of the largest mining groups in the world, operating in Australia, Chile, South Africa and a dozen other countries, and became the largest in the world exporter of thermal coal, a major producer of copper, nickel, ferrochrome and zinc.

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

Lion's share Glencore's revenue - 92% of $ 133.9 billion is generated 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, in turn, is subdivided into the following departments:

Metals and Minerals: About 30% of revenue, representing $ 45.2 billion

Aluminum. The Bauxites are supervised by Stephen Blumgart and Gary Fegel.
Ferroalloys. Nickel - CEOs Christian Wolfensberger and Stuart Cutler.
Zinc. Copper. Lead

Energy products: 61.6% of revenues representing $ 89.3 billion

Oil - Chief Executive Alex Bird
Coal

Agricultural products: 7.1% of revenue representing $ 10.4 billion

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

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

Performance indicators

Glencore in 2010 increased its 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 revenues ($ 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 CEO Ivan Glazenberg announced plans for an initial public offering of the company's shares on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges. As a result of this issue, the company expected to gain about $ 12.1 billion, as a result of which the total value of the enterprise was to reach approximately $ 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 the placement, including an option for the organizing banks.

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

Tony Hayward ( Tony hayward) - Senior Independent Director of Glencore.
Simon Murray ( Simon murray) - 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 has 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 (edit)

Glencore International on the Forbes Global 2000 List
Who we are (unavailable link - history) ... Glencore. Retrieved March 15, 2015. Archived March 15, 2015.
https://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/invest/company/profile_page_e.asp?WidCoID=0805&WidCoAbbName=&Month=&langcode=e
Glencore International. Profession: Mediator. 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 Glazenberg, 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: the controlling stake in Rosneft will remain with the state, RIA News(December 7, 2016). Retrieved December 7, 2016.

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