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Herro Cashes In Some Glencore Profits But Still Sees More Gains

Herro Cashes In Some Glencore Profits But Still Sees More Gains

(Bloomberg) -- One of Glencore Plc’s biggest investors said that while he’s cashed in some profits in the world’s top commodities trader, the stock’s rally probably isn’t over.

“It still has significant upside,” David Herro, chief investment officer of Harris Associates LP, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Chicago. But “we trimmed some of it” because returns aren’t likely to be as big going forward, he said.

Herro Cashes In Some Glencore Profits But Still Sees More Gains

Herro said he now owns just under 4 percent of the Swiss trader and miner, down from close to 9 percent in 2015. Glencore has surged more than fivefold in the past two years, jumping 12 percent in the past month alone. Producers have benefited from a recovery in commodity prices, with mining executives selling less-important assets and focusing on returning cash to shareholders.

Read more: Miners seeking third year of gains hope this time it’s different

A recent driver of higher metals prices has been the positive outlook on the electric car industry, a key growth market trumpeted by Glencore and something Herro is a little cautious on.

“This revolution is being driven by the regulator, the consumers are not demanding these electric vehicles,” Herro said. “Until we can get batteries that can be recharged quickly, and hold energy safely, at the right cost, mass electrification will not happen.”

Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is a senior independent non-executive director of Glencore.

To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London at tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net, David Westin in New York at dwestin@bloomberg.net, Alix Steel in New York at asteel6@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Nicholas Larkin, Liezel Hill

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.