Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — Glencore stepped up its debt reduction plan on Tuesday by promising to offload more assets to shore up its finances to cope with a commodities rout that wiped around a third off its 2015 profit. The Swiss mining and trading house, whose agricultural arm includes Canadian grain handling giant Viterra, aims […] Read more
Glencore to cut more debt as 2015 profit falls
An open market is still a work in progress
A truly open market requires transparency of information, but the veil is still being lifted
Reading Time: 5 minutes When the Canadian Wheat Board lost its monopoly in 2012, Blair Rutter predicted that it would take 10 years to adjust to an open market system. “Moving from a centrally planned system to a market economy, it takes a while,” the executive director at the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association said in an interview. “We […] Read more
Ex-Legumex crush plant gets new owners, supply deal
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s top grain handler is set to start feeding canola to a U.S. West Coast crushing plant now half-owned by the Prairie company’s parent firm. Regina-based Viterra, the grain handling arm of multinational commodity firm Glencore, on Tuesday announced a supply and marketing deal with Pacific Coast Canola (PCC), a next-to-new crush plant at Warden, Wash., […] Read more
Glencore shares jump on debt reduction moves, spending cuts
Reading Time: 3 minutes Johannesburg | Reuters –– Glencore has increased its debt reduction target and deepened its capital spending cuts, stepping up its response to lower commodity prices and boosting its battered shares by 12 per cent on Thursday. The mining and commodities trading firm and owner of Canadian grain handler Viterra said it was targeting net debt […] Read more
Not much interest in Glencore ag assets at grain firm G3
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters –– Grain handler G3 Canada, a joint venture between a Saudi Arabian firm and Bunge Ltd., doesn’t have much interest in bidding for a stake in rival Glencore’s agricultural business, its chief executive said Tuesday. Swiss-based Glencore, the trader and miner whose shares have been battered by the commodities slump, is looking […] Read more
Glencore reported in talks on agriculture assets
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Glencore is in talks with a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and China’s state-backed grain trader COFCO, along with Canadian pension funds, to sell a stake in its agricultural assets, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Selling assets is one prong of a wider strategy by the Swiss-based trader and miner to […] Read more
CHS says Viterra intriguing at right price
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. farm co-operative and grains trader CHS Inc. would be interested in the Canadian grain handling assets of embattled commodities trader Glencore, but only if they came at a discounted price, CHS CEO Carl Casale said in an exclusive interview. As part of a debt-reduction plan, Swiss-based Glencore has said it […] Read more
Glencore reported moving ahead on ag stake sale
Reading Time: < 1 minute Commodities firm Glencore, the owner of Prairie grain-handling heavyweight Viterra, is reported as already moving forward on plans to bring minority investors into its ag business. Glencore announced earlier this month it plans to tame the debt it’s racked up in its recent major expansions, partly through sales of assets and new shares. Those assets, […] Read more
Grain handler Scoular on hunt for more Canadian buys
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — U.S. crop handler The Scoular Co. is looking to acquire stakes in grain and oilseeds facilities in Western Canada, fresh off agreeing to its first major purchase in the crop-growing belt, the private company’s chief operating officer said Monday. Scoular last week agreed to pay $94 million for the special crops […] Read more
Ex-Viterra chief to take Ontario’s Hydro One public
Reading Time: 2 minutes The chief executive who morphed Saskatchewan Wheat Pool from a debt-crushed grain handler into Viterra, then oversaw its sale to Glencore, has been tapped to take Ontario’s Crown-owned power utility public. Toronto-based Hydro One on Thursday announced Mayo Schmidt as its new president and CEO effective Sept. 3, replacing Carmine Marcello. “We believe that Mr. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
