Glencore reported moving ahead on ag stake sale

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Published: September 28, 2015

,

(Dave Bedard photo)

Commodities firm Glencore, the owner of Prairie grain-handling heavyweight Viterra, is reported as already moving forward on plans to bring minority investors into its ag business.

Glencore announced earlier this month it plans to tame the debt it’s racked up in its recent major expansions, partly through sales of assets and new shares.

Those assets, the Swiss trading and mining company said at the time, are “including, but not limited to” the “minority participation of third-party strategic investors in certain of Glencore’s agriculture assets, including infrastructure.”

Read Also

Animal health worker Eduardo Lugo treats the wounds of a cow as Chihuahua ranchers intensify surveillance for the screwworm after the U.S. suspended cattle imports following the detection of the parasite in southern Mexico, at the Chihuahua Regional Livestock Union, in Nuevo Palomas, Mexico May 16, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez

U.S. again halts cattle imports from Mexico over flesh-eating screwworms

The flesh-eating livestock pest New World screwworm has advanced closer to the U.S. border with Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, prompting Washington to block imports of Mexican cattle just days after it allowed them to resume at a port of entry in Arizona.

Regina-based Viterra, which Glencore bought in late 2012, was mentioned by company brass in reports at the time as a desirable asset, but the company didn’t confirm which agricultural assets were on the table, saying more details would come “at the appropriate time.”

Javier Blas of news service Bloomberg on Friday quoted an unidentified “person familiar with the situation” as saying Glencore has already hired banks Citigroup and Credit Suisse Group to handle the sale of a minority share in the ag business.

Such a deal, the source said, could put a valuation on the company’s whole ag division at up to US$12 billion.

The Swiss-based company is in talks with “about a dozen sovereign wealth funds and Asia-based trading houses,” Bloomberg quoted the same source as saying.

Glencore is likely to sell the minority stake to a group of funds and trading houses as opposed to a single party, the same source told Blas. — AGCanada.com Network

explore

Stories from our other publications