Thumbnail: 

Glencore, the largest commodities trading company in the world, may list in Hong Kong if it goes ahead with an initial public offering, reveals the South China Morning Post.

The Post says the move would be a huge boost for the Hong Kong stock market and would encourage other resources companies to consider listing there. Glencore owns 9.7% of the Russian aluminium company Rusal, which has been given conditional approval to list on the Hong Kong exchange.

The secretive Swiss company recently completed a US$2.2 billion sale of bonds to institutional investors, which are convertible into equity in the event of an IPO. The bonds have been bought by private equity firms First Reserve, BlackRock and Government of Singapore Investment Corp. The Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group, China's third-largest copper producer, will buy US$200 million of the bonds subject to Beijing's approval, reports the Post.

According to the Post, Glencore trades a wide variety of raw materials and owns energy and mining assets around the world. The company owns zinc mines in Peru and Kazakhstan, coal mines in South Africa, and smelts copper in the Philippines.

Quote Image: