GLENCORE was committed to growing its business interests in South Africa partly owing to its comfort with the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was a former business partner of the Swiss-headquartered group, said Bloomberg News.
Glencore announced in October a $1bn deal to buy Chevron Corporation’s oil refining and fuel service stations in South Africa and considered a bid for the Optimum coal mine, said the newswire adding this was evidence of the mining firm’s confidence in South Africa.
The oil bid “… was a pretty strong vote of confidence in the South African environment,” Martin Kingston, CEO of NM Rothschild & Sons in South Africa told Bloomberg News. The bank is advising Chevron on the sale. “Glencore understands the environment very well. They are effective behind the scenes and they have their finger on the pulse,” he said.
“They have a record of thriving where others can’t or won’t go,” said Hanre Rossouw, a fund manager at Investec Asset Management in Cape Town in an interview with Bloomberg News.
