The billionaire chief executive of Glencore is to retire from the commodities group after almost two decades in charge.
Ivan Glasenberg, 63, will step down in the first half of next year and be succeeded by Gary Nagle, 45, head of Glencore’s coal mining business.
Mr Glasenberg, who joined Glencore in 1984, has been chief executive since 2002 and will be among the last to leave the top team that floated the group.
He owns just over 9 per cent of Glencore, a stake worth £3 billion, and is one of the most colourful and controversial figures in the mining industry.
The South African’s tenure has been marked by a series of corruption scandals and investigations that have weighed on the price of its shares, which are worth less than half the price at which they floated in London in 2011. A year after indicating that he was working on succession planning, Mr Glasenberg confirmed his departure and anointed his successor in characteristically unorthodox style, surprising shareholders at the end of an investor presentation in which the company set a net-zero emissions goal for 2050.
Glencore, the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal, is the first of the big miners to commit to eliminate the emissions from customers using its products. The company said that it intended to retain and run down its coal business, but could spin it off if its shareholders pressed it to do so.
Mr Glasenberg said: “Over the next six months, I will be working closely with Gary Nagle, who will be taking over from me.
“Gary’s been working with me for a long time; Gary started with me in the coal division 21 years ago. He’s 45 years old. He’s had great experience around the world.” He said Mr Nagle, a fellow South African, would maintain the culture and style of Glencore.
“I think this company is in great safe hands for the future and I’m happy to have him being the custodian of my shareholding in the company, which I will maintain.”
Glencore, which is based in Switzerland, mines commodities including coal, copper, zinc and cobalt and is one of the world’s biggest commodities traders. In 2019 it fell to a £404 million loss. Its shares rose 7¼p or 3.1 per cent to close at 237¾p yesterday.
The company has been under investigation for corruption by the US Department of Justice since 2018 over its operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere.
It is also under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in Britain and the Swiss authorities, is the subject of a separate inquiry in America by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission over alleged corruption, and faces a bribery inquiry in Brazil.
Mr Glasenberg said yesterday that he “couldn’t comment on any of that”. He insisted that under Mr Nagle “the culture will be exactly the same”.
Mr Nagle joined Glencore in 2000 and has worked in Switzerland, Colombia, South Africa and Australia.
Mining groups are under increasing pressure from investors to demonstrate how they will adapt to the global shift to greener energy and reduce their emissions.
Glencore’s “ambition” of eliminating its carbon footprint by reducing its emissions to net zero by 2050 marks it out from the other London-listed miners, which have declined to do so in respect of “scope 3” emissions, those generated by customers using their products.
Glencore said that 92 per cent of its total emissions footprint was scope 3 and 95 per cent of this related to the use of its thermal coal, burnt in power stations, one of the biggest contributors to climate change.
Mr Glasenberg said it would let coal production fall as mines depleted in Colombia and South Africa with only a small amount being dug in Australia by 2050. But he added: “We won’t be leaving coal in the ground.”
By 2035 Glencore aims to reduce its emissions by 40 per cent, which Mr Glasenberg said would put it in line with the Paris climate accords. He said he did not believe investors would put pressure on Glencore to dispose of coal, especially as it was a small proportion of its portfolio.
But if “the pressure gets worse and people just cannot own us because of coal, irrespective of the small portion it is of our portfolio and we start seeing a large amount of share register doing that” Mr Nagle would “face no alternative” but to look at options.
Mr Glasenberg said his successor could “spin it off into a separate vehicle and create a pure coal company, and give the shareholders the shares in that vehicle”.