Respite for the Glencore billionaires

A jump in the share price of miner Glencore has netted a £310m payday for the ‘billionaire boys’ club’ of current and former executives who control around 21pc of the company.

The stock closed up 5.2pc, or 11.5p, at 233.1p on the back of a mixed report for 2019, which saw higher cobalt, zinc, lead and coal output offset by declines in copper, nickel, gold, silver and ferrochrome.

However, the gains made by chief executive Ivan Glasenberg and others are dwarfed by a heavy decline in the share price in recent years as the company has contended with investigations by both uK and uS regulators into alleged bribery at the firm.

Since a high of around 415p in early 2018, the stock has tumbled nearly 44pc, wiping just under £5.1bn off the bank balance of the ‘billionaire boys’.

But Glasenberg, 63, saw his 9.1pc stake in the miner rise by around £133m yesterday, taking the value of his total holding to £2.83bn. Similarly, the head of the zinc and lead division, Daniel mate, gained £50m from his stake of 3.4pc, while coal boss, Tor peterson, 55, will have pocketed just shy of £37m from a 2.5pc holding. Some former executives will also be seeing healthier bank balances.

Telis mistakidis, who headed Glencore’s copper operation until the end of 2018 when he was banned from directorships by Canadian regulators after admitting false accounting, still owns around 3.4pc of the group and trousered £50m from yesterday’s rise.

Recently retired oil boss Alex Beard has earned £36m from his own 2.5pc stake.