Commodities trader Glencore made a steady market debut on Thursday, with shares trading just above the widely expected launch price of 530 pence, giving it solid currency for potential acquisitions. Initial grey market, or conditional, trade showed the shares changing hands at more than three percent above the offer price, indicating appetite for the stock. Many investors were left out after Glencore was flooded with orders for its shares.
But the stock pared those gains, changing hands at 540 pence by around 1130 GMT, up almost two percent. Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities trader, has said there was strong demand for its stock and had enough buyers to cover its offering of up to $11 billion within hours of starting the sale process earlier this month.
By the time order books closed a day earlier than originally planned on Tuesday, it had enough orders to cover its offer more than four times, according to one source close to the deal, meaning it received orders totalling more than $40 billion. At the offer price of 530 pence, Glencore has a market value of 36.7 billion pounds ($59.3 billion). It will be the fifth-largest mining-related firm on the London exchange. "The share price range was too high, full stop, as far as we were concerned," said one UK equities manager, at a house running more than 200 billion pounds of assets.
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