Shares in beleaguered trader and miner Glencore Plc rose yesterday on hopes it was on track with its debt-cutting plans with a sale of a stake in its agricultural assets.

Glencore’s share price has lost more than 60 per cent this year, battered by a collapse in global commodity prices over the past year and market jitters over the miner’s ability to service its heavy debts.

The Swiss-based trader has pledged to cut its net debt to $20 billion from $30 billion, by selling assets, reducing capital expenditure, suspending dividend payments and raising $2.5 billion of new equity capital with a share sale completed earlier this month.

Reuters reported on Friday that Glencore is in talks with a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and China’s state-backed grain trader Cofco, along with Canadian pension funds, to sell a stake in the assets.

The company has said it was on track to sell a stake in its agricultural business by early next year, according to Barclays.

Yesterday, Hong Kong-listed shares of Glencore surged as much as 72 per cent before closing up 18 per cent at HK$12.6. The shares rose as much as 20 per cent in early trade in London, and were up seven per cent at 0911 GMT, at 102 pence.

The stock has recouped all of its losses from the past week, with several brokers saying a recent sell-off was overdone as the company had the ability to withstand the crunch on commodity prices.

In a filing to the Hong Kong and London stock exchanges, the company noted the share price and volume movements, but said it was not aware of any reasons behind it.

Doubts had grown last week that Glencore would be able to pay down debt fast enough to withstand a prolonged slump in commodities prices. Its shares sank to a record low last week, down 87 per cent from when it listed in 2011.

“While the leverage is clearly of concern it is not anywhere near an immediate existential threat to the company – it is an issue that needs to be managed, and that is exactly what the company is doing,” broker Sanford Bernstein said in a note yesterday.

Bernstein maintained an “outperform” rating on the stock with a target of 450 pence.

The broker’s comments echoed those made by Citi last week saying the commodity powerhouse does not need to go to bond markets before at least 2017, and that it has immediate access to liquidity of more than $12 billion.

“The belief that Glencore is having a ‘Lehman moment’ seems unfounded,” the broker said, referring to Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in 2008.

Glencore has said its business remained operationally and financially robust.

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