Glencore to Sell Copper Smelter to Philippines’ Villar Family

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc has agreed to sell its struggling copper refinery in the Philippines to the family of the country’s richest man as the smelting industry reels from the lowest processing fees on record. 

The commodities trading giant is selling Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp., or Pasar, to the Villar family, headed by real estate billionaire Manny Villar Jr., according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the sale has not been made public yet. 

A spokesperson for Glencore declined to comment. A representative for Villar didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Thanks to its location, Pasar has long been a key trading asset for Glencore. It’s an outlet to place copper concentrates from Pacific producers in Australia and Indonesia, while also taking cargoes from South America.

Still, smelters have been reeling from a collapse in the fees they get from miners as there’s too much refining capacity fighting for not enough feedstock. Glencore has launched a sweeping review of its global copper and zinc smelting assets and has written down the value of its metal processing business. 

The trading house has been exploring a sale of Pasar since at least late last year, and idled the copper refinery earlier this year.

Villar, a former lawmaker worth over $23 billion, owns the largest home builder in the Philippines, as well as stakes in a shopping mall operator, a home-improvement chain and a supermarket chain. 

–With assistance from Cliff Venzon.

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