Glencore Weighs Becoming Next Commodity Giant to Quit London

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc said it’s studying whether to move its primary listing away from London, potentially becoming the latest major miner to leave what has for decades been the industry’s global hub. 

“Ultimately, what we want to ensure is that our securities are traded on the right exchange where we can get the right and optimal valuation for our stock,” Glencore Chief Executive Officer Gary Nagle said on a call with reporters. “There have been questions raised previously around whether London is the right exchange.”

Glencore began trading on the London Stock Exchange in 2011, in what was the bourse’s largest ever IPO at the time. The company said in a presentation on Wednesday that it was studying the best location for its primary listing.

Glencore joins some of the world’s biggest companies in weighing a London exit, as they look enviously at the deeper pools of capital, higher multiples and greater appetite for fossil fuels in the US. Oil major Shell Plc has been considering a move to the US, while miner Rio Tinto Plc is under pressure to collapse its London listing to focus on Australia. BHP Group Ltd. has already done so.

Losing Glencore would be a blow to London, which has lost 25% of its companies in the past decade. 

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After buying a majority stake in Teck Resources Ltd.’s coal business in 2023, Glencore floated the idea of putting the combined coal operations into a new company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Mutual-fund data shows the US market is more supportive of companies involved in fossil fuels.

Nagle said the review had nothing to do with the new US administration or its views on fossil fuels. However, the US was the leading candidate for a change, he added.

“We’re looking at all relevant exchanges that would make sense for Glencore,” Nagle said. “London is one — where we are and where we’re happy — but if there’s a better one, and those include the likes of the New York Stock Exchange, we have to consider that.” 

While coal miners globally have come under pressure as prices have fallen, US investors have warmed to the sector as Donald Trump has made clear that the dirtiest fossil fuel will have a central role to play in his campaign to overhaul America’s energy policy.

“We believe re-domiciling to the US would be a positive catalyst for these shares if the company decides to go down that path,” said Christopher LaFemina, an analyst at Jefferies LLC.

The discussions come as London battles to stem a flux of companies moving their listings overseas in search of deeper liquidity and heftier valuations. Plumbing products distributor Ferguson Enterprises Inc., construction materials group CRH Plc and betting firm Flutter Entertainment Plc are among those that have moved their primary listing to the US in recent years, while equipment rental firm Ashtead Group Plc is in the process of switching to New York.

In 2022, rival miner BHP switched its main listing to Sydney, ending a dual arrangement with London. Most of the trading in BHP shares was already done in Australia.

In addition to the defections, the British capital is also having to contend with a relentless wave of takeovers that reached 14-year peak last year, as well as a dearth of initial public offerings with just $1 billion raised in all of 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

–With assistance from Mark Burton.

(Updates with CEO comment in seventh paragraph, background on London listings in 11th)

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