{"id":847852,"date":"2026-01-14T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847852"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:12:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:12:48","slug":"r17-billion-boost-for-south-african-born-billionaire-since-the-start-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/847852\/r17-billion-boost-for-south-african-born-billionaire-since-the-start-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"R17 billion boost for South African-born billionaire since the start of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg has seen his personal net worth rise by over $1 billion (approximately R17 billion) after the company’s share price increased following talks with Rio Tinto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glencore recently announced that it was in merger talks with Rio Tinto in a deal that would create the world’s largest mining company, worth around R3 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies are discussing a potential combination of some or all of their businesses, which includes an all-share takeover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, they stressed that there is no certainty that the terms of any transaction or offer will be agreed upon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the move has seen Glencore’s share price rise by around 13% since the start of 2026, with its market cap now standing at R1.4 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glasenberg, who served as CEO from 2002 to 2021, holds the most significant individual stake in the company and has seen his net worth increase following the announcement that talks were underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index<\/a>, Glasenberg has seen his net worth rise by $1.07 billion (around R17.4 billion) year-to-date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This takes his total fortune to $12.1 billion (around R200 billion). While he grew up in South Africa, Glasenberg now lives in Switzerland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite seeing his net worth rise, Glencore’s current CEO, Gary Nagle, known as mini Ivan, will primarily handle the talks with Rio Tinto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The merger between Rio Tinto and Glencore has been described as the most obvious deal by Nagle, while Glasenberg had attempted to finalise the contract for two decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is reported that Rio Tinto has confirmed that it is being left behind as the copper M&A frenzy sweeps the sector. Anglo American and Canada’s Teck Resources are set to merge, creating a copper giant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boy from Illovo <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Born in Johannesburg in 1957<\/a> to an immigrant Jewish family, he grew up in Illovo and attended Hyde Park High School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not a gifted student, he was a passionate racewalker who won the South African national junior championships and nearly qualified for the 1984 Olympics, but was unable to attend due to South Africa’s exclusion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After studying at the University of Witwatersrand, he became a Chartered Accountant. He joined Marc Rich & Co. as a marketer in its South African business.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He quickly moved through the marketing division into Marc Rich & Co.\u2019s coal department for South Africa and Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Marc Rich & Co. was sold to Glencore International, Glasenberg\u2019s first few years as CEO were incredibly challenging, having to deal with issues from Glencore and Marc Rich\u2019s controversial past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIA accused the company of illegal dealings with \u2018rogue states\u2019 such as Apartheid South Africa, the Soviet Union, Iran, and Iraq.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glasenberg focused on reinventing the company and wanted the company to own and operate its own mines, allowing it to control the entire value chain. This set it apart from its commodity-trading peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He drove the merger of Glencore and Xstrata to form a mining and trading powerhouse, which is currently the most significant mining merger in history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glencore bought Xstrata for \u00a339.1 billion ($62 billion at the time), creating an entity with revenue of $209 billion in 2012.\u00a0This would only be outdone by a merger between Glencore and Rio Tinto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, during his tenure, the company continued to face widespread allegations of corruption<\/a>, paying at least $1.7 billion in settlements related to bribes and corruption following several investigations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, Glencore continues to operate through its coal mines and its ownership of Astron Energy, which operates an oil refinery in Cape Town. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg has seen his net worth shoot up by $1 billion since the start of the year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":833073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[9693,2458,24508],"class_list":["post-847852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-glencore","tag-rio-tinto","tag-xstrata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847852"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847867,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847852\/revisions\/847867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}