Glencore has seen its bid to create a £95billion commodities giant snubbed by a Canadian rival.
The London-listed mining and trading group launched an £18billion hostile offer for Teck Resources in its largest takeover attempt since its merger with Xstrata in 2013.
A deal would create a natural resources giant valued at £95billion and lead to a massive revamp of the company.
But the offer was rejected by Teck, with the Vancouver-based firm’s chairman Sheila Murray declaring: ‘The board is not contemplating a sale of the company at this time.’
The move by Glencore came just weeks after Teck outlined plans to spin off its steelmaking coal unit as it focuses on industrial metals, such as copper, crucial to the transition to green energy.
Signing off: Glencore launched an £18billion hostile offer for Teck Resources
After the separation, Teck plans to rebrand itself as Teck Metals Corp while the coal business will be listed in Toronto as Elk Valley Resources.
As part of its bid for Teck, however, Glencore said it would also spin out its own lucrative coal business and merge it with Teck’s steelmaking coal operations to create a New York-listed ‘Coal Co’.
Glencore also proposed bringing together the two firm’s industrial metals and minerals businesses to create the world’s third largest copper producer.
In a letter to Teck bosses, Glencore chief executive Gary Nagle insisted his mining giant was ‘the logical partner’ for a merger.
But Teck Resources said that it would forge ahead with its own planned restructuring.