Glencore Chief Executive Gary Nagle flew to Canada to meet shareholders last Thursday, after earlier in the week revising the unsolicited bid to include up to $8.2 billion in cash, which Teck's board rejected as "largely unchanged". The Swiss mining giant would instead combine and spin off its thermal coal unit and Teck's steelmaking coal business. Glencore declined to comment and Teck was not immediately available to comment.
A wave of buyout offers for mines and mining companies is widely expected in coming months as demand increases for copper and other green energy transition minerals. Shareholders have told Reuters that Glencore's offer is too low for them to reject Teck's restructuring plan or ask for a delay to the vote, while analysts expected the Swiss company to dig deeper into its pocket.
"If they were to increase the bid, then there is going to be
a lot of pressure on Teck to delay their vote and to engage,"
said Ben Cleary, portfolio manager at Tribeca Global Natural
Resources Fund.
Glencore's initial bid represented a 20% premium to Teck's
closing stock price on March 26, when it was made privately.
JP Morgan analysts said in a note on Monday that Glencore
could pay as much as $27.2 billion.
Teck has said it would explore a corporate transaction or
partnership post separation, while sources said on Monday that
the company has had approaches from more than six mining
companies interested in its prized metals business.
(Reporting by Clara Denina; Additional reporting by Mrinalika
Roy; Editing by Alexander Smith)
