London, May 14, 2026, 10:05 BST
- FIS announced Glencore has chosen its platform for the company’s first $2.55 billion securitisation of oil and gas trade receivables.
- Glencore shares slipped in early Thursday trading, giving back some of the gains from Wednesday’s rally on the back of copper hitting record highs.
- Odds from prediction markets continue to flag uncertainty tied to the Strait of Hormuz—a vital corridor for commodity shipments and a driver of input costs.
Glencore PLC is bringing in a $2.55 billion oil-and-gas trade receivables securitisation, adding fresh working-capital firepower. The move comes as commodity traders juggle record copper prices and ongoing Middle East supply strains, both weighing on balance sheets.
On May 12, FIS announced that Glencore picked its Supply Chain Finance Platform—previously known as Demica—to back the first supply chain finance programme in Glencore’s oil and gas commodities division. Trade receivables securitisation involves generating cash using outstanding customer payments, instead of letting invoices sit unpaid.
Timing plays a role here. Big commodity traders can see cash needs swing sharply if energy prices jump, shipping lanes get snarled, or cargoes just move slower than usual. According to FIS, the Glencore facility is supported by six financial institutions, with a setup aimed at real-time monitoring and reporting across multiple jurisdictions.
Steve Sabin, senior vice president for lending at FIS, said the agreement highlights how major trade-finance setups can “optimize working capital” for multinational firms. According to Trade Finance Global, which referenced FIS, this marks Glencore’s first securitisation program tailored to oil and gas marketing receivables. Barchart
Glencore was trading at 587.90 pence as of 09:50 BST Thursday, slipping 0.71%, Sharecast data showed. The stock had finished Wednesday at 592.10 pence, a 3.26% gain, lifted by a copper-driven surge in UK mining shares.
Copper futures jumped to $14,191 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange this Wednesday, according to Investing.com, giving shares of Glencore a boost alongside Antofagasta, Anglo American, and Rio Tinto. Reuters noted that gains among industrial miners helped drive the FTSE 100 up by 0.58% by the close.
Glencore heads into this period with a boost in copper—own-sourced output climbed 19% to 199,600 tonnes in the first quarter. Elsewhere, production was less steady. Cobalt tumbled 39%, after the company shifted its Democratic Republic of Congo operations to favor copper over cobalt, due to an export quota, according to Glencore.
Chief Executive Gary Nagle described first-quarter production as “largely in line” with what the company had anticipated, with 2026 production targets left untouched. He noted the conflict in the Middle East had disrupted crude, refined products and sulphuric acid flows, but pointed out that stronger commodity prices should more than counteract the cost headwinds. Glencore
The sulphuric acid issue is no sideshow. It’s a key ingredient in copper processing, so any hitch in supply means miners and smelters could see higher costs. Over at Kalshi’s market tracking Strait of Hormuz traffic, odds of normalisation before Aug. 1 sat at 37%, rising to 48% before Sept. 1. Polymarket’s view: a 46% chance for normal traffic by July 31.
M&A is taking a back seat at the moment. Polymarket’s odds for a Glencore-Rio Tinto deal—sale or merger—getting announced by June 30 are sitting at just 1%. That comes after previous merger discussions between the two mining giants fell through.
There’s a risk here—copper’s surge could choke off demand before it turns up in earnings. On Thursday, Bloomberg News flagged a drop of up to 1.9% for copper on the LME, after high prices cooled buying in China. Xu Wanqiu at Cofco Futures described those prices as “notably constraining” for Chinese demand. Bloomberg
Two immediate guideposts for investors: watch if copper prices keep hovering around their highs, and see how Glencore addresses costs, marketing income, and capital returns before its annual general meeting in Zug on May 28. To attend, Glencore requires guests to pre-register by May 14.
