Glencore's Trading Prowess Sets Unit Up for Second-Best Year
Glencore Sees a Strong Year of Trading for 2017 as Metals Rally
(Bloomberg) -- Glencore Plc said its powerful trading business will be a star performer again this year.
Earnings before interest and taxes for its trading division will be around $2.8 billion for 2017, the company said on Tuesday. That’s the second-best performance in data going back to 2010 and the top end of a previously announced range. Last year, Glencore reported record trading profit of $2.82 billion.
“Marketing is highly cash generative across the cycle,” the company said in a statement, adding that it’s “able and willing to grow our business” with "bolt-on acquisitions" focused on existing commodities.
The world’s biggest commodities trader is benefiting from soaring metals prices and more volatility in its major markets. The company has long positioned its trading division to investors as a key difference between it and other mining majors, who tend to market less of their own production. The business deals in almost 100 raw materials including oil and agricultural products.
Glencore is holding an investor call at 1 p.m. London time today and will provide more details on its business strategy. The shares slipped 1.6 percent to 345.75 pence as of 8:30 a.m.
Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg LP, is a senior independent non-executive director at Glencore.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tom Wilson in London at twilson128@bloomberg.net, Mark Burton in London at mburton51@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Nicholas Larkin
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