Glencore

Glencore   (Multinational corporation, Miner)
Formation	1974
Founder	Marc Rich
Location	Switzerland
Interests	Mining, Commodities trading
Multinational mining company with particularly aggressive business style. Tied to Mossad,

Glencore plc (an acronym for Global Energy Commoditity Resources) is an Anglo–Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with its registered office in Saint Helier, Jersey. The company is deeply tied to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad

Glencore controls 60% of the world’s zinc, half the world’s copper, 38% of aluminium and 9% of the global grain market. In 2011 it won the dubious award of the world's "most opaque mining company", courtesy of Publish What You Pay Norway (PWYP).

As of 2014, it ranked tenth in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. It is the world's third-largest family business. Even in a ruthless sector, what distinguishes Glencore is its particularly aggressive business style. Aggressive from all points of views – tax avoidance, corruption, total neglect for employees as well as communities they work in, non-responsiveness to critique. Glencore’s tax rate negotiated in Switzerland is next to zero.

The world's most opaque mining company

Piping Profits, published by Publish What You Pay Norway in 2011, showed that Glencore was the world's "most opaque mining company." Though the corporation controls relatively few subsidiaries compared to others in the sector - 46 compared to Rio Tinto's 926 - 46% of its subsidiary companies are incorporated in 'secrecy jurisdictions' such as the US state of Delaware, the Netherlands or Bermuda. Secrecy jurisdictions are defined as: "places where among many other advantages for companies requiring secrecy, company accounts and beneficial ownership details are not publicly available."

A leading producer and marketer of commodities

In addition to its own operations, Glencore holds interests in several other major mining companies, including 34.4% in Xstrata, 44% economic (39% voting) in Century Aluminum, 73.4% in Minara Resources, 74.8% in Katanga Mining, 8.8% in UCR, 51.5% in Chemoil Energy and 32.2% in Recylex. Glencore holds a market capitalization of $33bn and was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in May 2011.

As Glencore International, the company was already one of the world's leading integrated producers and marketers of commodities. It was the largest company in Switzerland and the world's largest commodities trading company, with a 2010 global market share of 60 percent in the internationally tradeable zinc market, 50 percent in the internationally tradeable copper market, 9 percent in the internationally tradeable grain market and 3 percent in the internationally tradeable oil market.

Glencore had a number of production facilities all around the world and supplied metals, minerals, crude oil, oil products, coal, natural gas and agricultural products to international customers in the automotive, power generation, steel production and food processing industries. The company was formed in 1994 by a management buyout of Marc Rich + Co AG (itself founded in 1974). It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in May 2011 and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Glencore's shares started trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November 2013.

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