Swiss Police Probe Mail-Box Blast at Home of Glencore Chief

Swiss police are investigating an attack at the house of Ivan Glasenberg, the billionaire chief executive officer of Glencore International Plc (GLEN), in which the property’s mail box was destroyed by an explosion.

Glencore “can confirm that an incident took place on the property of Ivan Glasenberg,” the Baar, Switzerland-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Glasenberg is in Davos at the World Economic Forum. “No one was injured. The police have been informed and are investigating the situation.”

Police are also looking into a separate incident at a Credit Suisse Group AG branch in Zurich, Marco Bisa, a police spokesman in the city, said by phone today. A forensics unit is assessing the substance that caused damage to the bank’s property running “into several thousand francs,” he said. A window was shattered at the rear of the branch, a spokeswoman for Credit Suisse in Zurich said.

Police are investigating whether the incidents are connected, Bisa said. Glasenberg lives in Rueschlikon, a town on Lake Zurich, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) from Glencore’s Baar headquarters.

The mail box at Glasenberg’s home was blown up yesterday by an unknown group, according to Swiss newspaper 20Minuten. The explosion was linked to the damage to at the Credit Suisse branch, the newspaper said.

Glasenberg, 56, has been CEO of Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trader, since 2002, and his 15.5 percent stake in the group is worth about $6.8 billion. He’s in the final stages of completing a $37 billion takeover of Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata Plc (XTA) to create the world’s fourth- largest mining company.

Glencore gained 1 percent to close at 392.6 pence in London trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Riseborough in London at jriseborough@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net