2015 Annual Report of Glencore plc

RNS Number : 3164R

Glencore PLC

08 March 2016

 

Glencore plc

Baar, Switzerland

8 March, 2016

2015 Annual Report of Glencore plc ("Glencore" or the "Company")

Glencore has today:

·     published its Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2015 on its website www.glencore.com as required by DTR 6.3.5 R (3); and

·     submitted a copy of the Annual Report to the UK National Storage Mechanism in accordance with LR 9.6.1 R.

The 2015 Annual Report will shortly be available for inspection on the National Storage Mechanism: www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM

Glencore will hold its 2016 Annual General Meeting in Zug on 19 May 2016. The notice of meeting will be released in April 2016.

The Appendix to this announcement contains the following additional information which has been extracted from the 2015 Annual Report for the purposes of compliance with DTR 6.3.5 only:

·     a description of principal risks and uncertainties;

·     a note on related party transactions; and

·     the Directors' Responsibilities Statement.

The Appendix should be read in conjunction with Glencore's Preliminary Results Announcement issued on 1 March 2016 (including the notice on forward looking statements at the end of that announcement). Together these constitute the material required by DTR 6.3.5 to be communicated to the media in unedited full text through a Regulatory Information Service. This announcement should be read in conjunction with and is not a substitute for reading the full 2015 Annual Report. Page and note references in the text below refer to page numbers and notes in the Annual Report and terms defined in that document have the same meanings in these extracts.

APPENDIX

Glencore's Principal risks and uncertainties

The following has been extracted from pages 28 - 35 of the 2015 Annual Report:

Our risk management framework identifies and manages risk in a way that is supportive of our strategic priorities of opportunistically deploying capital, while protecting our future financial security and flexibility. Our approach towards risk management is framed by the ongoing challenge of our understanding of the risks that we are exposed to, our risk appetite and how these risks change over time.

The Board assesses and approves our overall risk appetite, monitors our risk exposure and sets the Group-wide limits, which are reviewed on an ongoing basis. This process is supported by the Audit and HSEC Committees, whose roles include evaluating and monitoring the risks inherent in their respective areas as described on pages 85 - 88.

Our current assessment of our risks, according to exposure and impact, is detailed on the following pages. In compiling this assessment we have indicated the impact of these risks in comparison with a year ago in the table below.

The commentary on the risks in this section should be read in conjunction with a commentary under Understanding the information on risks which is set out below.

To the extent that any of these risks are realised, they may affect, among other matters: our current and future business and prospects, financial position, liquidity, asset values, growth potential, sustainable development (whether as to adverse health, safety, environmental, community effects or otherwise) and reputation.

The natural diversification of our portfolio of commodities, geographies, currencies, assets and liabilities is a source of mitigation for many of the risks we face. In addition, through our governance processes as noted previously and our proactive management approach we seek to mitigate, where possible, the impacts of certain risks should they materialise. In particular:

·     our liquidity risk management policy requires us to maintain (via a $3 billion minimum prescribed level) sufficient cash and cash equivalents and other sources of committed funding available to meet anticipated and unanticipated funding needs;

·     making use of credit enhancement products, such as letters of credit, insurance policies and bank guarantees and imposing limits on open accounts extended;

·     our management of marketing risk, including daily analysis of Group value at risk (VaR); and

·     adhering to the principles encapsulated in the Glencore Corporate Practice (GCP) programme.

Understanding the information on risks

There are many risks and uncertainties which have the potential to significantly impact our business, including competitive, economic, political, legal, regulatory, social, business and financial risk. The order in which these risks and uncertainties appear does not necessarily reflect the likelihood of their occurrence or the relative magnitude of their potential material adverse effect on our business.

We have sought to provide examples of specific risks. However, in every case these do not attempt to be an exhaustive list. These principal risks and uncertainties should be considered in connection with any forward looking statements in this document as explained on page 202.

Identifying, quantifying and managing risk is complex and challenging. Although it is our policy and practice to identify and, where appropriate and practical, actively manage such risks to support objectives in managing capital and future financial security and flexibility, our policies and procedures may not adequately identify, monitor and quantify all risks.

The comments below describe our attempts to manage, balance or offset risk. Risk is, however, by its very nature uncertain and inevitably events may lead to our policies and procedures not having a material mitigating effect on the negative impacts of the occurrence of a particular event. Since many risks are connected, our analysis should be read against all risks to which it may be relevant.

In this section, we have sought to update our explanations, reflecting our current outlook.

Mostly this entails emphasising certain risks more strongly than other risks rather than the elimination of, or creation of, risks. To understand the changes in outlook and for more detail on certain risks, our previous annual reports are on our website at: www.glencore.com/investors/reports-and-results/reports/

To provide for concise text:

·     where we hold minority interests in certain businesses, although these entities are not generally subsidiaries, the interests are mostly taken as being referred to in analysing these risks, and "business" refers to these and any business of the Group;

·     where we refer to natural hazards, events of nature or similar phraseology we are referring to matters such as earthquake, flood, severe weather and other natural phenomena;

·     in each case our mitigation of risks will include the taking out of insurance where it is customary and economic to do so;

·     "risks" include uncertainties;

·     "laws" include regulations of any type;

·     a reference to a note is a note to the 2015 financial statements; and

·     we have referred to our 2015 Sustainability Report which will be published in April 2016.

External

Reductions in commodity prices

Risk - The revenue and earnings of substantial parts of our industrial activities and, to a lesser extent, our marketing activities, are dependent upon prevailing commodity prices. Commodity prices are influenced by a number of external factors, including the supply of and demand for commodities, speculative activities by market participants, global political and economic conditions, related industry cycles and production costs in major producing countries.

A significant downturn in the price of commodities generally results in a decline in our profitability and could potentially result in impairment and balance sheet constraints. It is especially harmful to profitability in the industrial activities, which are more directly exposed to price risk due to the higher level of fixed costs, while our marketing activities are ordinarily substantially hedged in respect of price risk and principally operate a service-like margin-based model.

Comments - The significant falls in prices experienced during 2015 and the pessimistic medium-term outlook of many commodity market commentators make this the Group's foremost risk. The continued price declines in our commodities generally, and especially copper and coal, have been a severe drag on our financial performance and have led to material concerns as to the Group's indebtedness levels.

The Group is implementing a significant programme of activities in response, as summarised on the previous page of the 2015 Annual Report. See the Chief Executive Officer's review on page 4 and the financial review on pages 36 - 41.

Details of the significant impairments recorded during the year are contained in note 5. The valuations used for this analysis remain sensitive to price and further deterioration in the price outlook may result in additional impairments.

Against the backdrop of these fluctuations, as we would expect, there were no breaches during 2015 of our $100 million Group VaR limit pertaining to our marketing activities - see page 83.

Fluctuations in the supply of, or demand for, the commodities in which we operate

Risk - We are dependent on the expected volumes of supply or demand for commodities in which we are active, which can vary for many reasons, such as competitor supply policies, changes in resource availability, government policies and regulation, costs of production, global and regional economic conditions and events of nature.

Comments - This risk is currently prevalent, with demand growth uncertainty in various commodities we produce and market, notably within steel, coal and oil markets.

See the Chief Executive Officer's review on page 4.

Fluctuations in currency exchange rates

Risk - The vast majority of our transactions are denominated in US dollars, while operating costs are spread across many different countries, the currencies of which fluctuate against the US dollar. A depreciation in the value of the US dollar against one or more of these currencies will result in an increase in the cost base of the relevant operations in US dollar terms.

The main currency exchange rate exposure is through our industrial assets, as a large proportion of the costs incurred by these operations is denominated in the currency of the country in which each asset is located. The largest of these exposures is to the currencies listed on page 44.

Comments - This risk is currently prevalent in our industry. However, these fluctuations tend to move in symmetry with those in commodity prices and supply and demand fundamentals as noted above, such that decreases in commodity prices are generally associated with increases in the US dollar relative to local producer currencies and vice versa. Consequently, the current relative strength of the US dollar has been beneficial to us through lower equivalent US dollar operating costs at many of our operations. This positive, however, has been more than offset by the disruption to the world economy and the substantial falls in commodity prices described above.

Geopolitical risk

Risk - We operate and own assets in a large number of geographic regions and countries, some of which are categorised as developing, complex or having unstable political or social climates. As a result, we are exposed to a wide range of political, economic, regulatory and tax environments. Policies or laws in these countries may change in a manner that may be adverse for us. Also, some countries with more stable political environments may nevertheless change policies and laws in a manner adverse to us. We have no control over changes to policies, laws and taxes.

The geopolitical risks associated with operating in a large number of regions and countries, if realised, could affect our ability to manage or retain interests in our industrial activities.

Comments - During 2015, we were subject to significant changes in fiscal policy from countries in South America, Africa and Asia Pacific and we expect this trend to continue in 2016 as the global geopolitical climate continues to evolve, partly affected by falls in commodity prices.

Risks can also arise from the announcement and/or implementation of reductions in workforces and temporary or permanent production stoppages.

See map on page 8 and 9 that sets out our global operational footprint.

Laws, enforcement, permits and licences to operate

Risk - We are exposed to and subject to extensive laws including those relating to bribery and corruption, taxation, anti-trust, financial markets regulation, management of natural resources, licences over resources owned by various governments, exploration, production and post-closure reclamation. The terms attaching to any permit or licence to operate may also be onerous. Furthermore, in certain countries title to land and rights and permits in respect of resources are not always clear or may be challenged.

The legal system and dispute resolution mechanisms in some countries may be uncertain so that we may be unable to enforce our understanding of our title, permits or other rights. Lawsuits may be brought, based upon damage resulting from past and current operations, and could lead to the imposition of substantial sanctions, the cessation of operations, compensation and remedial and/or preventative orders. Moreover, the costs associated with legal compliance, including regulatory permits, are substantial. Any changes to these laws or their more stringent enforcement or restrictive interpretation could cause additional material expenditure to be incurred (including in our marketing business) or impose suspensions of operations and delays in the development of industrial assets. Failure to obtain or renew a necessary permit could mean that we would be unable to proceed with the development or continued operation of an asset.

A dispute relating to an industrial asset could disrupt or delay relevant extraction, processing or other projects and/or impede our ability to develop new industrial properties.

Comments - We are committed to complying with or exceeding the laws and external requirements applicable to our operations and products. Through this and monitoring of legislative requirements, engagement with government and regulators, and compliance with applicable permits and licences, we strive to ensure full compliance. We also seek to manage these risks through the Glencore Corporate Practice (GCP) programme. Its practical application across our business is detailed in our code of conduct

(www.glencore.com/who-we-are/corporate-governance/policies/code-of-conduct/) and this framework is reflected in our Sustainability Reports. The Group's anti-corruption policy may also be found at:

www.glencore.com/who-we-are/corporate-governance/policies/global-anti-corruption-policy/.

The Group is currently evaluating the impact of proposed regulations to govern commodity market participants (principally MiFID 2) in Europe.

New and proposed further changes to the rules of the London Metal Exchange ("LME") have contributed to significant reductions in premiums in LME aluminium prices and indirectly to a $119 million goodwill impairment of our Pacorini metals warehousing business - see page 134 and notes 5 and 9 of the 2015 Annual Report.

Liquidity risk

Risk - Our failure to access funds (liquidity) would severely limit our ability to engage in desired activities.

Liquidity risk is the risk that we are unable to meet our payment obligations when due, or are unable, on an ongoing basis, to borrow funds in the market on an unsecured or secured basis at an acceptable price to fund actual or proposed commitments. While we adjust our minimum internal liquidity threshold from time to time in response to changes in market conditions, this minimum internal liquidity target may be breached due to circumstances we are unable to control, such as general market disruptions, sharp movements in commodity prices or an operational problem that affects our suppliers, customers or ourselves.

A lack of liquidity may mean that we will not have funds available to maintain or increase marketing and industrial activities, both of which employ substantial amounts of capital. If we do not have funds available to sustain or develop our marketing and industrial activities then these activities will decrease.

Comments - Note 25 details our financial and capital risk management approach.

During 2015, the Group had been subject to considerable market speculation as to its medium-term funding position. Glencore Funding Factsheet, a summary of the Group's financing arrangements is available at: www.glencore.com/assets/investors/doc/debt-investor/GLEN-2015-Glencore-plc-update-and-details-of-funding-structure-6Oct2015.pdf.

As at 31 December 2015, the Group had available undrawn committed credit facilities and cash amounting to $15.2 billion (31 December 2014: $9.4 billion), comfortably ahead of our $3 billion minimum prescribed level.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's have both reduced the Company's investment grade credit rating by one notch to BBB- (stable) and Baa3 (stable) respectively.

Business activities

Counterparty credit and performance

Risk - Financial assets consisting principally of marketable securities, receivables and advances, derivative instruments and long-term advances and loans can expose us to concentrations of credit risk.

Furthermore, we are subject to non-performance risk by our suppliers, customers and hedging counterparties, in particular via our marketing activities.

Non-performance by suppliers, customers and hedging counterparties may occur and cause losses in a range of situations, such as:

·     a significant increase in commodity prices resulting in suppliers being unwilling to honour their contractual commitments to sell commodities at pre-agreed prices;

·     a significant reduction in commodity prices resulting in customers being unwilling or unable to honour their contractual commitments to purchase commodities at pre-agreed prices; and

·     suppliers subject to prepayment or hedging counterparties may find themselves unable to honour their contractual obligations due to financial distress or other reasons.

Comments - We monitor the credit quality of our counterparties and seek to reduce the risk of customer non-performance by requiring credit support from creditworthy financial institutions including making extensive use of credit enhancement products, such as letters of credit, insurance policies and bank guarantees. Specific credit risk policy rules apply to open account risk with an established threshold for referral of credit positions by departments to central management. In addition, note 25 details our financial and capital risk management approach.

Sourcing, freight, storage, infrastructure and logistics

Risk - Our marketing activities require access to significant amounts of third party supplies of commodities, freight, storage, infrastructure and logistics support and we are exposed to reduced accessibility and/or increased pressure in the costs of these. In addition, we often compete with other producers, purchasers or marketers of commodities or other products for limited storage and berthing facilities at ports and freight terminals, which can result in delays in loading or unloading of products and expose us to significant delivery interruptions.

Increases in the costs of freight, storage, infrastructure and logistics support, or limitations or interruptions in the supply chain (including any disruptions, refusals or inabilities to supply), could adversely affect our business.

Comments - Our global network of infrastructure and logistics operations such as vessels, oil terminals and tank farms, metals and other warehouses and grain silos assists in mitigating risks related to disruptions to or limitations of sourcing, freight, storage, infrastructure and logistics.

See map on page 8 and 9 that sets out our global operational footprint.

Development and operating risks and hazards

Risk - Our industrial activities are subject to numerous risks and hazards normally associated with the initiation, development, operation and/or expansion of natural resource projects, many of which are beyond our control. These include unanticipated variations in grade and other geological problems (so that anticipated or stated reserves, resources or mineralised potential may not conform to expectations and in particular may not reflect the reserves and resources which the Group reports and as a result the anticipated volumes or grades may not be achieved). Other examples include seismic activity, natural hazards, processing problems, technical and IT malfunctions, unavailability of materials and equipment, unreliability and/or constraints of infrastructure, industrial accidents, labour force insufficiencies, disruptions and disputes, disasters, protests, force majeure factors, cost overruns, delays in permitting or other regulatory matters, vandalism and crime. Cyber crime can also have materially adverse consequences for our marketing and industrial businesses, see also page 34.

The development and operating of assets may lead to future upward revisions in estimated costs, completion delays, cost overruns, suspension of current projects or other operational difficulties. Risks and hazards could result in damage to, or destruction of, properties or production facilities, may cause production to be reduced or to cease at those properties or production facilities, may result in a decrease in the quality of the products, personal injury or death, third party damage or loss, and may result in actual production differing from estimates of production.

Natural hazards, sabotage or other interference in operations, could increase costs or delay supplies. In some locations poor quality infrastructure is endemic. The realisation of these development and operating risks and hazards could require significant and additional capital and operating expenditures to fund abatement, restoration or compensation to third parties for any loss and/or payment of fines or damages.

Comments - Development and operating risks and hazards are managed through our continuous development status evaluation and reporting processes and ongoing assessment, reporting and communication of the risks that affect our operations through the annual risk review processes and updates to the risk register.

We publish quarterly our production results and annually our assessment of reserves and resources based on available drilling and other data sources.

Production at Koniambo (Nickel) was partially suspended during 2015 following detection of a metal leak at the metallurgical plant.

In 2015, the ongoing technical challenges of processing oxide concentrates at our Katanga operation led us to commission a whole ore leaching process, similar to that already operating successfully at Mutanda.

Availability of continuous high-voltage power continues to be of critical importance to our copper operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are continuing to invest in long-term power solutions via the Inga dam refurbishment.

At both Katanga and Mopani, we have taken advantage of a lower-price copper environment to focus on the whole ore leaching project (Katanga) and the Synclinorium and Mopani Deeps projects (Mopani) via suspension or reduction of certain processing operations.

During 2015, the Board received and discussed a presentation on cyber security from the Group Head of IT.

See also page 34 for our assessment of and programmes to mitigate our health safety and environmental risks and in particular catastrophic risks.

Cost control

Risk- As commodity prices are outside of our control, the competitiveness and sustainable long-term profitability of our industrial asset portfolio depends significantly on our ability to closely manage costs and maintain a broad spectrum of low-cost, efficient operations. Costs associated with the operation of our industrial assets can be broadly categorised into labour costs and other operating and infrastructure costs. Overall production and operating costs are heavily influenced by the extent of ongoing development required, ore grades, mine planning, processing technology, logistics, energy and supply costs and the impact of exchange rate fluctuations.

All of our industrial assets are, to varying degrees, affected by changes in costs for labour and fuel. Unit production costs are also significantly affected by production volumes and therefore production levels are frequently a key factor in determining the overall cost competitiveness of an industrial asset.

Comments - In the current challenging lower-margin environment, there is notably a greater emphasis on the need to reduce costs and/or curtail activities.

Maintaining costs and, where possible, lowering them is supported by our reporting on these measures, coupled with the inclusion of certain cost control evaluation measures in assessing management performance.

Sustainable development

Health, safety, environment, including potential catastrophes

Risk - Our operations are subject to health, safety and environmental laws along with compliance with our corporate sustainability framework. The processes and chemicals used in extraction
and production methods, as well as transport and storage,
may impose environmental hazards. A serious failure in these areas could lead to an emergency or catastrophe at a site. Environmental hazards may affect not only our properties but also third parties. The storage of tailings at our industrial assets and the storage and transport of oil are material examples of these risks.

Environmental (including those associated with particular environmental hazards) and health and safety laws may result in increased costs or, in the event of non-compliance or incidents causing injury or death or other damage at or to our facilities or surrounding areas may result in significant losses, including arising from (1) interruptions in production, litigation and imposition of penalties and sanctions and (2) having licences and permits withdrawn or suspended or being forced to undertake extensive remedial clean-up action or to pay for government-ordered remedial clean-up actions. In each case liability may arise where the hazards have been caused by any previous or subsequent owners or operators of the property, by any past or present owners of adjacent properties, or by third parties.

Catastrophes can also arise due to cyber attacks, e.g. where there is malicious interference with operational software at industrial assets.

Comments - Our approach to sustainability and our expectations of our employees, our contractors and our business partners are outlined in our sustainability programme. This underpins our approach towards social, environmental, safety and compliance indicators, providing clear guidance on the standards we expect all our operations to achieve. Through the reporting function within the programme, our Board and senior management receive regular updates and have a detailed oversight on how our business is performing across all of the sustainability indicators. We monitor catastrophic risks, in particular across our portfolio, and operate emergency response programmes.

Compliance with international and local regulations and standards are our top priorities. Our operating procedures and those of our partners in relation to owned tankers conform to industry best practice working under the guidelines of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), relevant Flag States and top tier classification societies.

We remain focused on the significant risks facing our industry arising from operational catastrophes such as the examples of tailings dam collapses in Canada and Brazil and the Turkish coal mine disaster experienced in the last two years. During 2015, the HSEC Committee sponsored the launch of a new sustainability risks assurance process. Its initial focus has been on the Group's catastrophic hazards and in 2015, it received 12 reports on these hazards across a wide range of the Group's industrial assets.

In addition, ongoing investment continues in the Group's SafeWork health and safety programme.

See also pages 18 - 25. Further details will also be published in our 2015 Sustainability Report.

Emissions and climate change

Risk - Our global presence exposes us to a number of jurisdictions in which regulations or laws have been or are being considered to limit or reduce emissions. The likely effect of these changes will be to increase the cost for fossil fuels, impose levies for emissions in excess of certain permitted levels and increase administrative costs for monitoring and reporting. Third parties, including potential or actual investors, may also introduce policies adverse to the Company due to its activities in fossil fuels.

Increasing regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, including the progressive introduction of carbon emissions trading mechanisms and tighter emission reduction targets is likely to raise costs and reduce demand growth.

Comments - Through our sustainability programme (operated under our GCP framework), we strive to ensure emissions and climate change issues are identified, understood and effectively managed and monitored in order to meet international best practice standards and ensure regulatory compliance. We seek to ensure that there is a balanced debate with regard to the ongoing use of fossil fuels.

Our 2015 Sustainability Report will provide further details of the operation of our community engagement programme, including the international standards to which we voluntarily submit.

In recent months, there have been announcements by some investment groups regarding the introduction of, or tightening of, policies concerning reduced investment in fossil fuel intensive companies.

It should be noted that in 2015 around 5% and 26% of our revenue and EBITDA respectively were derived from coal and oil industrial activities.

Community relations

Risk - The continued success of our existing operations and our future projects are in part dependent upon broad support and a healthy relationship with the respective local communities. A perception that we are not respecting or advancing the interests of the communities in which we operate, could have a negative impact on our ''social licence to operate'', our ability to secure access to new resources and our financial performance. The consequences of negative community reaction could also have a material adverse impact on the cost, profitability, ability to finance or even the viability of an operation and the safety and security of our workforce and assets. Such events could lead to disputes with governments, with local communities or any other stakeholders, and give rise to reputational damage. Even in cases where no adverse action is actually taken, the uncertainty associated with such instability could negatively impact the perceived value of our assets.

Comments - We believe that the best way to manage these vital relationships is to adhere to the principles of open dialogue and cooperation. In doing so, we engage with local communities to demonstrate our operations' contribution to socio-economic development and seek to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to prevent or mitigate possible adverse impacts on the communities, along with the regular reporting as outlined on our website at: www.glencore.com/sustainability/our-approach-to-sustainability/communities/engagement/.

Employees

Risk - The maintenance of positive employee and union relations and the ability to attract and retain skilled workers, including senior management are key to our success. This can be challenging, especially in locations experiencing political or civil unrest, or in which they may be exposed to other hazardous conditions. Many employees are represented by labour unions under various collective labour agreements. Their employing company may not be able to satisfactorily renegotiate its collective labour agreements when they expire and may face tougher negotiations or higher wage demands than would be the case for non-unionised labour. In addition, existing labour agreements may not prevent a strike or work stoppage.

Comments - We understand that one of the key factors in our success is a good and trustworthy relationship with our people. This priority is reflected in the principles of our sustainability programme and related guidance, which require regular, open, fair and respectful communication, zero tolerance for human rights violations, fair remuneration and, above all, a safe working environment, as outlined on our website at:

www.glencore.com/careers/our-people/.

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

The following has been extracted from pages 173 of the 2015 Annual Report.

In the normal course of business, Glencore enters into various arm's length transactions with related parties, including fixed price commitments to sell and to purchase commodities, forward sale and purchase contracts, agency agreements and management service agreements. Outstanding balances at period end are unsecured and settlement occurs in cash (see notes 11, 13, and 23). There have been no guarantees provided or received for any related party receivables or payables.

All transactions between Glencore and its subsidiaries are eliminated on consolidation along with any unrealised profits and losses between its subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures. In 2015, sales and purchases with associates and joint ventures amounted to $1,196 million (2014: $1,200 million) and $3,562 million (2014: $3,178 million) respectively.

Remuneration of key management personnel

Glencore's key management personnel are the members of the Board of Directors, CEO, CFO and the heads of the operating segments. The remuneration of Directors and other members of key management personnel recognised in the consolidated statement of income including salaries and other current employee benefits amounted to $10 million (2014: $10 million). There were no other long-term benefits or share-based payments provided to key management personnel (2014: $nil). Further details on remuneration of Directors are set out in the Director's remuneration report on pages 89 - 94.

Statement of Directors' responsibilities

The following responsibility statement is repeated here solely for the purpose of complying with DTR 6.3.5. This statement relates to and is extracted from page 98 of the 2015 Annual Report.

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the Directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted for use in the European Union (together "IFRS"). The financial statements are required by law to be properly prepared in accordance with the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991. International Accounting Standard 1 requires that financial statements present fairly for each financial year the Company's financial position, financial performance and cash flows. This requires the faithful representation of the effects of transactions, other events and conditions in accordance with the definitions and recognition criteria for assets, liabilities, income and expenses set out in the International Accounting Standards Board's "Framework for the preparation and presentation of financial statements". In virtually all circumstances, a fair presentation will be achieved by compliance with all applicable IFRSs. However, the Directors are also required to:

·     properly select and apply accounting policies;

·     present information, including accounting policies, in a manner that provides relevant, reliable, comparable and understandable information;

·     provide additional disclosures when compliance with the specific requirements in IFRSs are insufficient to enable users to understand the impact of particular transactions, other events and conditions on the entity's financial position and financial performance; and

·     make an assessment of the Company's ability to continue as a going concern.

The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Company's website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

John Burton

Company Secretary

7 March 2016

For further information please contact:

Company secretarial
John Burton		t: [phone]		m: [phone]		[e-mail]
Nicola Leigh		t: [phone]		m: [phone]		[e-mail]
Investors
Martin Fewings		t: [phone]		m: [phone]		[e-mail]
Elisa Morniroli		t: [phone]		m: [phone]		[e-mail]
Media
Charles Watenphul		t: [phone]		m: [phone]		[e-mail]
Pam Bell		t: [phone]		m: [phone]		[e-mail]

www.glencore.com

 www.youtube.com/glencorevideos 

Glencore is one of the world's largest global diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 90 commodities. The Group's operations comprise around 150 mining and metallurgical sites, oil production assets and agricultural facilities.

With a strong footprint in both established and emerging regions for natural resources, Glencore's industrial and marketing activities are supported by a global network of more than 90 offices located in over 50 countries.

Glencore's customers are industrial consumers, such as those in the automotive, steel, power generation, oil and food processing. We also provide financing, logistics and other services to producers and consumers of commodities. Glencore's companies employ around 160,000 people, including contractors.

Glencore is proud to be a member of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the International Council on Mining and Metals. We are an active participant in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

 

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