Glencore Studies Selling Stake in Agriculture Unit to Curb Debt

  • CFO Kalmin says company's agriculture assets are `desirable'
  • Buyers could take stakes in infrastructure or overall unit
Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Glencore Plc is considering selling a minority stake in its agriculture business as part of the Swiss miner and commodity trader’s wider plan to reduce its $30 billion of debt by about a third.

It could bring in investors in infrastructure assets in the agriculture unit including ports, rail and storage facilities, or even sell a minority stake in the overall business, Glencore Chief Financial Officer Steve Kalmin said. There’s been “quite a lot of interest” in food commodities from sovereign wealth funds in China and Japan, he said Monday in a phone interview.