US justice tumbles Glencore's price of action

The United States received a heavy mail Monday evening from Glencore, a group of Swiss-British resources, the authorities US court documents requesting documents from the company and other documents relating to violations of anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws. According to Glencore, the United States Department of Justice is interested in the activities of the group in Nigeria, Congo-Kinshasa and Venezuela from 2007. The company, based in Baar (ZG), said that It would examine the summons and, in due time, give information. The stock market did not want to wait that long: London-listed stocks lost more than 10% of their value at the start of the trading session on Tuesday, reducing their market capitalization by £ 5 billion (CHF 6.5 billion) ).

Congo-Kinshasa, Venezuela, Nigeria

The fierce reaction on the stock market is also due to the fact that Glencore has not come out of the headlines for quite some time now. the Group's operations in Congo-Kinshasa, where Glencore operates two copper and cobalt mines. At the end of last year, businessman Dan Gertler was sanctioned by the United States. Gertler, who would be a friend of Congolese President Joseph Kabila, is accused by Washington of corruption and dark affairs. The Israeli was a long-time business partner of Glencore in the African country. As a result, the Baar-based company (ZG) has also fallen into the vicious circle of US investigations. In addition, a corruption investigation could be opened in the United Kingdom against Glencore for Gertler stores. Switzerland has granted legal aid to the United States in the case of companies assigned to Gertler.

The US judicial investigation is first a summons to issue documents. Without more information can not tell what status Glencore has in this survey. If an investigation is under way against the commodity company, it is more than doubtful that this would result in a fine of CHF 6.5 billion if the company were convicted, as the reaction to the stock market would suggest. A market capitalization payment of 10% seems high given the corruption cases of the former US companies. Credit Suisse analysts have noted that such assignments are common and that the collapse of prices is therefore not justified.

Exploration of Frontiers

Because US authorities are interested in activities in Congo-Kinshasa as well as in Nigeria and Venezuela, it can also be argued that extensive investigations against Glencore are imminent, which do not only concern the Gertler case. For example, just a few months ago, Venezuelan state company Venezuela SA (PDVSA), a Venezuelan oil company owned by the state, sued the United States against a number of companies oil companies and commodity traders, including Glencore. The companies were allegedly involved in bribes through the Helsinge vehicle, in order to obtain confidential information from the public company. It is not known for the moment what cases the US authorities are aiming at with the subpoena.

The US authorities' request comes a few weeks after Glencore's attempt to explore the limits of US sanctions. The commodity company was in the dilemma that partner Gertler is sanctioned while Glencore is still forced to pay him royalties. Gertler sued Glencore and claimed damages of about $ 3 billion because the Baarer had stopped the payments. Glencore agreed with Gertler that royalties should be paid in euros and not in dollars and that no person from the United States should be involved in the transaction. The Group expects to comply with the sanction rules. The case has apparently been discussed with the Swiss and American authorities. It is still unclear whether Washington has accepted the procedure and how much the authorities are in agreement: The sanctions were imposed by the Ministry of Finance, while the convening of the Ministry of Justice comes