Glencore has scrapped plans to move its primary listing from London as part of a major overhaul to reverse its declining share price and stuttering production.
Boss Gary Nagle confirmed on Wednesday the Anglo-Swiss commodities juggernaut was no longer assessing whether to move its main listing to New York, telling reporters it decided the move would not be “value accretive”.
Glencore revealed earlier this year that alongside an root-and-branch operational review to root out inefficiencies, it was also reassessing its financial home, in an announcement that rocked London’s already beleaguered public markets.
At the time, the mining group was one of the 20 most valuable members of the FTSE 100, but Nagle said the firms’ board had begun exploring whether other bourses – namely New York – could help them bet “the right valuation”.
But speaking to reporters, the group’s South African boss revealed the company had assessed it was unlikely to make it into New York’s S&P 500. As well as symbolic damage, missing out on the blue-chip index would mean Glencore would not gain access to vast amounts of investor cash pooled in tracker funds that invest an even amount in all the index’s 500 constituents.
Nagle made his comments shortly after the company revealed it had missed earnings estimates for the first half of 2025.
A difficult year for Glencore
The firm highlighted Donald Trump’s capricious tariffs and a stubbornly low coal price as major headwinds for the mining giant in what was a testing first half of the year.
Revenue was flat year on year in the six months to June 30, hovering around $117bn (£87.9bn). But the group said the White House’s on-off tariff-making and the fraught geopolitical landscape had led adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to plummet 37 per cent, from $2.9bn to $1.8bn.
Adjusted EBIT also fell from $6.3bn to $5.3bn.
Beyond geopolitics, Nagle highlighted this year’s historically low coal prices and the “temporary but largely expected” operational issues in its copper production as also acting as headwinds to the group’s performance.
But he confirmed that the operational review of its entire portfolio had unearthed several efficiency opportunities to help “streamline [its] operating structure”.
“The review also identified c.$1bn of recurring cost savings opportunities (against a 2024 baseline) across our various operating structures, which are expected to be fully delivered by the end of 2026, with more than 50 per cent already targeted for the end of 2025,” Nagle said.
Despite the update on efficiences, Glencore shares were trading 4.6 per cent lower on Wednesday morning.
Copper aside, production remained on target, the group said, and it reiterated its guidance for the rest of the year.
It added that it had received $900m, completing its sale of former agricultural investment Viterra to Bunge in early July.
The fall in earnings compounds what has already been a difficult 2025 for the FTSE 100 mining and trading group, during which its share price has fallen to an all-time low since listing in 2011.
Shares in the group, which has a secondary listing in Johannesberg, are down 16.7 per cent this year alone despite rival miners like Fresnillo and Antofogasta being among the FTSE 100’s performers.
Last month, the accounting watchdog launched an investigation into Deloitte over its auditing of Glencore, after the mining and commodities group was mired in a corruption scandal.
Glencore pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2022 after several investigations by police across the US, UK and Brazil, which unearthed bribery and market manipulation. It agreed to pay north of £1bn of penalties.
By City AM
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