Glencore Investors Force Glasenberg to Prepare for Doomsday

Change of strategy came after meetings with shareholders
Dividend shelved; $2.5 billion sale of shares announced

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By Jesse Riseborough and Javier Blas

September 7, 2015 at 8:50 PM UTC

Updated on

September 8, 2015 at 4:02 PM UTC

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After a breakfast meeting with a small group of hedge funds in New York last week, Glencore Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg concluded that investors could no longer stomach his famously bullish outlook.

The meeting capped two weeks of discussions with shareholders from North America to Europe after the Swiss miner and trader reported a 56 percent decline in profit. His plan to trim Glencore’s $30 billion debt by 10 percent by the end of next year wasn’t enough to halt a plunge in the company’s market value, which has more than halved to about 17 billion pounds ($26 billion) this year. On Monday, the company announced a strategy to reduce debt much more quickly.