JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The completion of commodity trader Glencore’s $33-billion takeover of diversified miner Xstrata has been postponed for a second time, the parties said in a joint statement to shareholders on Friday.
Glencore and Xstrata agreed to complete the deal by March 15, pending the outcome of South Africa’s Competition Commission hearings, which started on Friday, owing to the upcoming release of Glencore’s preliminary results for the year ended December 2012 and the “ongoing regulatory processes” in South Africa and China.
The merger was initially set to be completed at the end of last year, but was set back until January 31 owing to a postponement of the South African competition hearings in December.
“… the parties have agreed the new long stop date to give them the flexibility to complete the merger after the release of the preliminary results,” the companies said.