From bad blood and public bashing to an $8.9-billion deal: How Teck made nice with Glencore – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 18, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Back in the spring, Teck Resources Ltd. suffered one of the biggest blows in its more than 100-year history. At the 11th hour, Canada’s biggest diversified mining company called off a restructuring that had been years in the making, after failing to garner enough support from shareholders.

On the day of that grim announcement, the atmosphere at Teck’s annual general meeting was akin to that in a morgue. Teck’s sombre-faced chief executive officer Jonathan Price and its board of directors were forced to publicly accept blame for putting forward a poorly conceived restructuring.

Under the plan, Teck would have spun out its ESG-unfriendly steelmaking coal business to shareholders, but still retain significant exposure to it because the business would pay royalties to its remaining critical minerals division for about a decade – a confusing, and convoluted transaction that muddied Teck’s ESG credentials.

Another major factor in Teck losing the vote, however, was an aggressive takeover campaign from Swiss mining and commodities trading powerhouse Glencore PLC. In the run-up to the meeting, it successfully convinced a significant number of Teck’s shareholders to vote against the proposed restructuring.

For the rest of this article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-from-bad-blood-and-public-bashing-to-an-89-billion-deal-how-teck-made/