Glencore scraps plan to spin off its coal business, post push from investors 

Glencore has abandoned its plans to spin off its coal business after shareholders overwhelmingly urged the company to retain the highly profitable but environmentally damaging division. 

The FTSE 100 company reported that over 95% of its investors preferred keeping the coal business, citing its potential “cash-generating capacity” to shareholders. 

The original plan was to list the coal division as a separate entity on the New York Stock Exchange.

Also read: Shareholders back Glencore’s 2024-2026 Climate Action Plan

“They recognise that cash is king,” said Gary Nagle, the company’s chief executive.

Glencore, along with other fossil fuel companies, sought to tap into the US markets, where investors are generally more accepting of polluting industries than their European counterparts. 

The plan was for Glencore to merge its coal business with the steelmaking coal division of its recent acquisition, Canada’s Teck Resources, and list the combined entity on the New York Stock Exchange.

Glencore has confirmed it will follow shareholders’ calls to keep the coal division despite its significant carbon footprint and a 33% drop in underlying profits for the first half of the year, which fell to $6.3 billion (£5 billion) from $9.4 billion during the same period last year.

Also read: Decision looms for Glencore’s carbon capture approval in Queensland amid environmental safety debate 

Nagle said Glencore now has a “best in class, gold-standard compliance programme” that has created a “responsible and ethical” business. “It’s something we work on every day,” he said.