Glencore chief makes a comeback with a bet on oil and Vladimir Putin
London/Abu Dhabi — A year ago Ivan Glasenberg was fighting to save his company from short sellers. Today, the CEO of Glencore is back to doing what made his reputation: cutting deals that shake up global commodity markets. Making a big bet on both the battered oil industry and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Glencore and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund joined forces to buy an $11bn stake in Rosneft, the Kremlin-run oil producer that pumps more crude than Exxon Mobil Corp. Although Glasenberg is only committing $300m of Glencore’s money to the proposed deal — the rest will come from banks and Qatar — his company will be closely entwined with Rosneft, built and run by Putin’s longtime ally Igor Sechin. As part of the deal, Glencore will get to sell 220,000 barrels a day of Rosneft oil for five years and it is unlikely to end there. Glencore expects "additional opportunities, through a strategic partnership for further co-operation, including infrastructure, logistics and global trading," the B...
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