Rio Tinto (RIO) and Glencore (GLEN) have ended official takeover talks for at least six months. The two diversified miners had announced to the market talks had started last month, in a bid to create the world’s top copper producer.
“Further to the announcement of 8 January 2026 . . . Rio Tinto is no longer considering a possible merger or other business combination with Glencore, as Rio Tinto has determined that it could not reach an agreement that would deliver value to its shareholders,” the company said.
Glencore shares fell 7 per cent on the news.
Rio Tinto was keen to bring more copper mines into its portfolio because forecasts of demand increases for the red metal look to tip the market into deficit in the coming years. Glencore has said it could almost double its copper production from the current level of around 900,000 tonnes per year.
Reports this week emerged over a disagreement on who would lead the combined company, with Rio pushing to hold the chair and chief executive positions, as well as the size of the premium it would hand Glencore’s shareholders.
Glencore confirmed these sticking points in a statement on Thursday.
“The key terms of the potential offer were Rio Tinto retaining both the chairman and chief executive officer roles and delivering a pro forma ownership of the combined company which, in our view, significantly undervalued Glencore’s underlying relative value contribution to the combined group, even before consideration of a suitable acquisition control premium,” the company added.
“We concluded that the proposed acquisition on these terms is not in the best interests of Glencore shareholders.”
RBC Capital Markets analyst Ben Davis had modelled a combined company that was held 63 per cent by Rio shareholders and 37 per cent by Glencore, with a premium of 28 per cent paid to the smaller company’s investors.
Glencore shares climbed this month as copper prices rose, taking it over 500p per share for the first time in almost three years. It went public in 2011 at 530p per share.
The price and leadership issues look to have trumped complex portfolio rearrangement under a potential Rio and Glencore merger. The Swiss company was already making progress on this front.
This week, Glencore sold around half of its stakes in two mines in DR Congo to a consortium including a US government body. This would have made the merger easier to land, according to analysts.
“The timing of Glencore’s proposed partial selldown of its DRC copper assets subtly shifts negotiating leverage by pre-empting one of the hardest issues in any potential tie-up: valuation and geopolitical risk,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Alon Olsha on Tuesday.
Who’s the boss?
Who gets to run the company post-merger is often a sticking point in these negotiations: in the mining world, Glencore installed its own bosses at the top of the enlarged business after the Xstrata deal in 2013, to the detriment of Mick Davis. His former Billiton boss Brian Gilbertson ran BHP (BHP) for just six months after the two companies merged in 2002.
Barrick Mining (US:B) managed to stabilise the ship after early discord between Mark Bristow and chair John Thornton, although the company is now cleaning up Bristow’s legacy, which includes a fight with Mali and the commitment to building a multi-billion-dollar copper and gold mine in Pakistan. Barrick said on Thursday it was reviewing this investment decision.
Anglo American (AAL) chief executive Duncan Wanblad will keep hold of the top job in the merger with Teck Resources (CN:TECK.B), with the smaller company’s boss Jonathan Price coming in as deputy chief executive. This deal is expected to complete in late 2026 or the first months of 2027.