Glencore shareholders will receive almost £6bn after record profits

theguardian.com:

Glencore will give almost £6bn to shareholders after the mining and commodities company reported record pre-tax profits of more than £28bn in 2022, boosted by rocketing oil and coal prices.

The Switzerland-based group, one of the largest companies listed on London’s FTSE 100 by market capitalisation, announced a payout of £5.9bn ($7.1bn) to shareholders, including dividends and a new £1.2bn share buyback programme.

It came as the miner’s adjusted pre-tax profit climbed 60% to a record £28.2bn last year, up £10.6bn from 2021.

Glencore’s trading division also reported record profits of £5.3bn, which represented a 73% increase compared with a year earlier, mainly as a result of soaring energy prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This was driven by its energy traders “successfully navigating the extreme market imbalances, volatility and dislocations across crude oil, LNG, refined products, coal and logistics infrastructure”, Glencore said.

Gary Nagle, Glencore’s chief executive, said the company had been able to generate record profits as a result of soaring energy prices and “the generally high and volatile 2022 commodity price environment”.

Glencore said its industrial division’s profits had risen by 60% to £22.6bn as a result of significantly higher coal prices.

In January 2022 the company acquired the remaining two-thirds it did not own of the Cerrejón coalmine in Colombia, South America’s largest open-pit coalmine.

However, Glencore sounded a note of caution over the economic outlook for the coming year, as a result of high levels of inflation around the world, and the resulting increase in interest rates as central banks attempt to tackle rising prices.

Despite this, the company expects to benefit from China’s