Glencore has moved to dispel any suggestion that a planned secondary listing in Australia signals an exit from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with chief executive Gary Nagle stating that leaving the bourse is not under consideration. The South African-born executive, who took over from fellow South African Ivan Glasenberg five years ago, framed the Australian move as an addition to the group’s listing footprint rather than a substitution for its 13-year presence in Johannesburg.
Nagle credited the JSE listing, taken up in 2013, as one of the group’s strongest-performing venues, pointing to South Africa’s deep capital pool and an investor base with genuine mining literacy. That endorsement carries weight at a time when the local exchange has been losing companies to markets offering greater liquidity, and when the number of JSE-listed firms has shrunk over two decades. Glencore shares have climbed 88% on the JSE over the past five years, giving the Switzerland-based commodities trader and miner a valuation just below R1.7-trillion.
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The logic behind the Australian listing mirrors the South African rationale. Nagle described Australia as a mining economy with a comparable depth of sector knowledge, and pointed to its roughly A$4.4-trillion pool of pension fund assets as one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing sources of long-term capital. South Africa currently accounts for about 8% of Glencore’s share register, equivalent to some A$10bn or about R115bn, a base the group hopes to replicate in Australia.
| Glencore snapshot | Figure |
|---|---|
| JSE valuation | Just under R1.7-trillion |
| Share gain (5 years) | +88% |
| SA share register | 8% (~A$10bn / R115bn) |
| H1 adjusted ebitda | $10.1bn (+86%) |
| H1 attributable income | $4.4bn (from -$655m) |
| Returns since 2021 | $28.8bn (~33% of market cap) |
| 2026 announced returns | ~$3.5bn |
| Australian pension pool | ~A$4.4-trillion |
The primary listing will remain in London, where Glencore last year weighed and set aside a possible move to New York. The group also walked away earlier this year from merger discussions with Australian rival Rio Tinto, a roughly $200bn combination that foundered on valuation. Against that backdrop, the Australian listing reads as a bid to widen access to capital without surrendering its established registers.
Glencore becomes the second major miner to reaffirm its JSE commitment over the past five years. When BHP, the world’s largest mining house, consolidated its share structure in 2022, it kept a secondary Johannesburg listing alongside its primary Australian listing, in effect favouring Johannesburg over London. BHP is now worth R3.7-trillion on the JSE, up 56% over five years. Together, the two decisions offer a counterpoint to the narrative of steady delistings from the local market.
The listing plans accompany a strong set of interim numbers. For the six months to end-June, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 86% to $10.1bn, while attributable net income swung to $4.4bn from a $655m loss a year earlier. Glencore attributed much of the improvement to substantially higher average prices for its core commodities and a favourable trading environment, with copper strength helping offset weaker cobalt.
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The group linked the period’s volatility to a repricing of energy markets after the escalation of the Middle East conflict, which shifted attention from ample supply towards security of access across oil, refined products, LNG and freight. Alongside the results, Glencore announced a special cash distribution of 8.5 US cents a share, about $1bn, drawn from surplus capital tied to its Bunge shareholding, and a new $500m buyback to complete by February 2027. The measures lift announced 2026 shareholder returns to roughly $3.5bn, extending a run that has seen $28.8bn returned since 2021, equal to about a third of the group’s market value, and reinforcing the investor case Nagle is taking to Sydney.