Bad Buy

At the height of the 2013 coal boom, the trading firm Glencore purchased mining firm Xtrata forming Glencore-Xtrata. The thought was combining low volatility Glencore with high volatility Xtrata, and in the process making a bigger firm, would improve results. Wrong! Firm value is down 75% Y-o-Y. Worse, declining coal prices coupled with the massive $20 billion in short-term operating capital borrowed by Glencore are now imperiling the whole firm!