Glencore chief’s £69m dividend

Chief executive Ivan Glasenberg, who owns roughly 1.1 billion shares or a 15.5 per cent stake, will receive the bumper award after the company unveiled its first full-year dividend of 6.9p a share in its maiden set of annual results as a public company.

The Swiss-headquartered company, which floated on the London Stock Exchange last year, is one of the world’s largest commodities traders with big operations in wheat, iron ore, copper, zinc and oil.

Mr Glasenberg, the group’s largest investor, became a paper billionaire with a stake worth £6bn when the firm listed on the FTSE 100 Index in London’s largest stock flotation to date.

The listing made Mr Glasenberg, who earns a £925,000 annual salary, one of the richest men in Europe.

Glencore, which recently announced plans to merge with mining giant Xstrata in a £55bn deal, revealed net profits of £2.8bn.

The proposed multi billion-pound tie-up between Glencore and Xstrata met instant criticism from leading shareholders when it was unveiled last month.

The mining heavyweights want to merge and form a company worth £57bn, but must secure the backing of 75 per cent of Xstrata and Glencore shareholders in separate votes, as well as regulatory approval, to proceed.

Standard Life Investments, which has a 2.2 per cent holding in Xstrata, expressed concerns over the level of Xstrata’s proposed stake at 45 per cent and refused to back the deal.