The shares are priced at 125 pence each, raising $US2.5 billion (£1.6 billion) for Glencore, which is on a mission to slash its $US30 billion debt pile. Glencore has been the worst performer in the UK’s blue chip FTSE 100 index this year and has been under pressure to cut debt and improve profits as prices collapse for a range of commodities it produces and sells.

Planned asset sales should secure a further US$2bn and between US$500mln and US$1bn would be cut from capex budgets to the end of 2016. The majority of those shares will be sold via accelerated bookbuild, with the remaining 22 percent taken up by management, it said in a statement. The company has also been hit by growing uncertainty about the timing and structure of the proposed equity issue of up to $2.5 billion as it seeks to pay down debt and stave off a potential credit-rating downgrade. Barclays Plc is also a book- runner on the sale. Had Glencore issued new stock representing 10 per cent or more of its shares, the move would have been more cumbersome, requiring that all new stock be offered to existing shareholders on an equal (or pre-emptive right) basis. Shares in BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto have all endured heavy falls over the past year .

Switzerland-based Glencore suspended trading of its shares in Hong Kong and London on Wednesday. He has watched the shares plummet from a float price of 530p in 2011. There is an oversupply of materials like iron ore and copper, and demand from China appears to be slowing as the giant consuming nation experiences new economic difficulties.

Glencore is the world’s largest thermal coal exporter and largest copper supplier.