The morning after announcing a return to profit that capped a dramatic turnround for Glencore, you could have forgiven Ivan Glasenberg, the mining and trading company’s billionaire chief executive, for enjoying a lie in.
Not so. By 5.45am on Friday, the 60-year-old was in the lobby of his hotel in London’s Park Lane, limbering up for a run with a select group of analysts and other associates who were much younger than him.
After a brisk 7km around Hyde Park — clocking 4m 48s/km — he dashed off to a breakfast meeting with investors. By the evening Ivan, as he is universally known in the commodities industry, was preparing to head to Florida to attend a mining conference.
”It’s all very different from a year ago,” quipped Mr Glasenberg.
Back then, Glencore revealed it had slumped to a $5bn net loss for 2015. The company spent much of that year locked in a fight for survival, fending off attacks from hedge funds who thought the Switzerland-based company was close to being overwhelmed by its large debts amid an intensifying commodities rout.
Now, after reaping a rebound in copper, coal and cobalt prices, Glencore is back in the black, reporting a net profit of $1.4bn for last year. It has also cut its net debt by 40 per cent.
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