London 10/12/2015 - Glencore has received multiple expressions of interest in its current and potential assets, company executives told investors on Thursday.
Following a slump in commodity prices and a sharp fall in its share price, the mining company announced a string of measures to reduce debt.
One such measure was to sell two copper mines, Cobar in Australia and Lomas Bayas in Chile - executives said that there had been "extensive" interest in the assets from Australian, Asian and South American investors, with completion of the deals on target for the end of the year.
As well, the company entered into a streaming deal with Silver Wheaton in October for silver produced at Antamina. Further precious metal streaming deals are also under consideration and are advancing for an agreement by the end of the year, it said.
Around $1.5 billion could be generated from its precious metals streaming and transactions, while Glencore may also look to sell some of its royalties, it added.
These measures could result in a reduction of its $18-19 billion net debt by the end of 2016.
As well, CEO Ivan Glasenberg said Glencore has been approached for assets that are not currently up for sale.
"We have had a lot of companies chasing us to do streaming in other assets, on assets we haven't put on [but] we are not doing that right now - we are comfortable where we are," Glasenberg said.
But Glencore could be persuaded to do deals "if we get a big number", which underlines to investors that it could carry out further divestments if required, he added.
Its prime assets have received bids at "reasonable level"; should another company value its assets at a higher value than Glencore, it would "look at opportunities", Glasenberg said. "Of course, we are traders," he added.
The company has increased its debt reduction target to $13 billion from $10.2 billion previously and reduced its capex to $5.7 billion for 2015 and to $3.8 billion for 2016.
"As demonstrated by quick action, we have flexibility, we have many levers and we can pull them when required," Glasenberg said.
Glencore's share price, which had fallen to an all-time low in September of 66p, was last at 92.12p, up nine percent on Wednesday's close.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)