(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc’s attempt to seal mining’s biggest deal in a decade has thrust new Chief Executive Officer Gary Nagle into center stage. Little known outside Glencore before taking the job nearly two years ago, the energetic South African is pursuing one of mining’s most unattainable targets, in a bitter brawl that’s headed for a potential climax this week.
While the bid for Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd. is Nagle’s first major move as CEO, the deal itself was dreamed up under his predecessor Ivan Glasenberg, who privately tried and failed to get it done in 2020. Nagle was involved in those efforts too, according to people familiar with the matter, as head of Glencore’s coal business and already earmarked to replace the man that hired him two decades earlier.
Three years later, Glencore under Nagle is trying again. It has proposed a $23 billion takeover of Teck, with a plan to create two new companies from the combination — one focused on metals and the other that produces coal. It’s a company-defining deal that would reshape Glencore’s own business while swallowing up one of the last big Canadian miners.
Teck has rejected Glencore’s approaches, saying investors should support its own plan to spin off its coal mines before it’s willing to entertain offers. Crucially, that view is backed by Norman Keevil, the Canadian mining patriarch whose family’s “supervoting” shares give him a veto on any big decisions. For decades, the Keevil stake meant that Teck was viewed as untouchable across the industry, even as rivals coveted its mines.
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