Bloomberg BusinessWeek article on GlenCore
Of Belgian birth, Marc Rich renounced American citizenship, and currently holds Israeli and Spanish passports, with his primary residency being in Switzerland.
He is the subject of a recent biography - The King of Oil - by Daniel Amman.
He broke away from his first employer, dominant trading company Phillips Brothers, taking fellow trader Pincus Green with him, to form what ultimately became the commodities trading group March Rich & Co.
Under Rich & Greens' stewardship, the good ship March Rich & Co sailed from war torn port to war torn port, magicking money from chaos - trading with a host of ill-favoured regimes & tyrants to obtain the life bloods of industry.
Protracted legal assault by an American government intent on obtaining its pound of flesh from his activities resulted initially in Rich's swift and permanent relocation to the exquisite environs of Zug Switzerland, and ultimately in his apparently abandoning direct control of his operation, largely selling out to his former partners.
Bill Clinton delivered presidential pardons to both Rich and Green as one of his final acts of office. Much subsequent analysis credits Rich's relationship within Israeli intelligence as having been an important fulcrum on which to lever the pardons.
Glencore
Notable amongst the spawn of Marc Rich and Co. is Glencore - which is owned and managed by former partners Ivan Glasenberg & Willy Strotthotte. Glencore effectively controls mining company Xstrata, and is most likely the largest broker of oil trades in the world today.
Marc Rich and Pincus Green can be regarded as being instrumental in the development of the spot market for crude oil.
Ivan Glasenberg - Glencore
TheBigPond
RSA MiningMX
FinancialMail Profile
123 People Profile
Wikipedia
Official XStrata corporate profile
Forbes Profile
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2011/02/28
Reuters:
Glencore primes analysts as IPO talk heats up:
Glencore GLEN.UL, the world's largest commodities trader, is briefing analysts ahead of a possible flotation that could be one of the biggest listings ever seen in London, sources familiar with the situation said.
If it goes ahead, an initial public offering (IPO) of Glencore could value the company at as much as $60 billion, according to Liberum Capital estimates.
2011/03/02
Reuters:
Special report: The biggest company you never heard ofIn the world of physical trading -- buying, transporting and selling the basic stuff the world needs -- Glencore is omnipresent and controversial, just as Goldman is in banking. Bigger than Nestle, Novartis and UBS in terms of revenues, Glencore's network of 2,000 traders, lawyers, accountants and other staff in 40 countries gives it real-time market and political intelligence on everything from oil markets in Central Asia to what sugar's doing in southeast Asia. Young, arrogant, and often brilliant, its staff dominate their market. The firm's top executives have forged alliances with Russian oligarchs and well-connected African mining magnates. Like Goldman, Glencore uses its considerable heft to extract the best possible terms in every deal it does.
Some might add that Glencore also fits the description that Rolling Stone magazine gave to Goldman: "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity".
Sometime in the coming weeks, Glencore is likely to announce its Initial Public Offering. The firm currently operates as a privately held partnership, with staff sharing the profits according to a performance-based incentives scheme. Sources familiar with Glencore's plans say it may list 20 percent of the company, possibly split between the London Stock Exchange and Hong Kong. Such a listing could yield up to $16 billion and value the firm at as much as $60 billion.
...
UNDER THE RADAR
Nestling in a lakeside village in Switzerland's low-tax canton of Zug, Glencore's starkly modern headquarters reflect a culture where trading aggression is coupled with public discretion. In front of the building a simple concrete sculpture -- A SPHERE SPINNING ATOP A PYRAMID -- hints at Glencore's global reach---
Articles
South African Mail & Guardian article at time of IPO
