FTSE 100 company reports 6% fall in annual profits weeks after collapse of $260bn merger with Rio Tinto
Glencore is to give $2bn (£1.47bn) to shareholders after a turbulent year in which profits slumped and talks collapsed over a blockbuster $260bn merger with the fellow mining company Rio Tinto.
The FTSE 100 company announced the payout on Wednesday despite reporting that annual profits slipped 6% on the previous year to $13.5bn.
It comes weeks after talks over what would have been the largest deal in mining history collapsed, leaving the Swiss-headquartered commodities company to press ahead with a plan to more than double its copper production over the next decade.
Rising metals prices and an increase in copper output in the second half of the year were not enough to make up for a bruising fall in coal and energy commodity prices, which pulled earnings down. Glencore, which was established in 1974 as a trading company, has operations in more than 30 countries and a workforce of about 140,000.
