Glencore has proposed supporting Kazakh entrepreneur Shakhmurat Mutalip’s $1.4 billion bid to buy a 40% stake in miner Eurasian Resources Group, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the discussion.
The London-listed miner has proposed a $800 million upfront pre-payment in exchange for future shipments of ferrochrome, mainly used in steel production, to help finance the bid, the report added.
Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Mutalip’s bid is close to being finalized, having overtaken a rival bid from Shukhrat Ibragimov, the CEO of Eurasian Resources and son of the company’s co-founder Alijan Ibragimov, FT said.
Glencore had previously tried to buy the former FTSE 100 company in 2011 for 12 billion pounds ($15.99 billion), according to a media report at the time.
The London-listed miner and Mutalip are also in active discussions over his bid to acquire its 70% stake in another Kazakh miner, Kazzinc, FT added, which it said could be worth about $3.5 billion.
($1 = 0.7503 pounds)
(By Unnamalai L; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
