The Swiss commodities and mining goliath Glencore closed at a record low on Wednesday after reporting a sharp drop in half-year profits.
That’s just another kick to the face for a company that saw its value tumble from $75 billion in July 2014 to around $32.5 billion now, according to The Wall Street Journal. Since the company’s IPO in 2011, its value has fallen more than 60%.
Now, three of the six billionaires minted by Glencore’s IPO might not be billionaires anymore: the value of their holdings in the company has dropped below $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. Even those who remain part of the Glencore billionaire club might be considering putting their yachts on Airbnb. CEO Ivan Glasenberg saw the value of his stake drop from $9.4 billion in May 2011 to $2.8 billion now, Bloomberg reported.
Glencore is suffering the effects of an anemic commodities market, which has been exacerbated by China’s slowdown. The price of copper commodities — one of Glencore’s biggest earners — is at multi-year lows due to China’s declining demand.
“It’s hard to predict what China is doing, as an industry we should not be increasing production in anticipation of China demand,” Glasenberg told Reuters this week.”We will pull back our own production if necessary. Keep it in the ground, you can dig it out anytime.”
