By Felix Njini and Pratima Desai

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) -Glencore will keep its coal business after securing backing from a majority of its investors who see lucrative earnings from the fossil fuel, its CEO said on Wednesday, adding the company could acquire more steelmaking coal assets.

Glencore, which had been consulting investors on possibly spinning off coal assets, also reported a first-half net loss of $233 million, after booking $1.7 billion of one-off items, including about $1 billion of impairment charges.

The London-listed miner is “comfortable” maintaining a primary listing in London but would consider other options if there were fundamental changes and a reason to move to another exchange, CEO Gary Nagle added. Company valuations are generally higher in the United States.

Glencore recently concluded the purchase of Teck Resources’ coking coal assets, and Nagle said support from the company’s European investors to retain coal had been overwhelming. Reuters reported on March 22 that investors were keen for Glencore to keep mining coal.

Lack of investment in new coal assets and the prospect of the fossil fuel remaining part of the energy mix for years to come is likely to underpin tight supplies and high prices, which will continue to boost Glencore’s profits.

The coal businesses generate “huge amounts of cash and we can use that cash both to pay back shareholders through buybacks and through dividends as well”, Nagle said.

Investors’ environmental concerns have moderated over the past nine-to-12 months, he added.

Glencore could also add more steelmaking coal capacity, Nagle said, but declined to say whether it would consider Anglo American’s Australian steelmaking coal assets, which are up for sale.

“At the right price, in the right geography, in the right quantity, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t consider additional acquisitions of steelmaking coal.”

Glencore shares were up 3.1% at 1439 GMT.

OPTIONS

Cash from coal could help Glencore build a war chest to deliver returns to its investors while financing deals, “including possibly an acquisition of some or all of Anglo’s for sale steelmaking coal assets”, Jefferies analysts said in a note.

However, more coal exposure could put further downward pressure on Glencore’s equity valuation, it said.

“Glencore could benefit from moving its primary listing to the U.S., in our view, as U.S.-listed coal equity valuations have significantly re-rated over the past two years.”

Glencore had been canvassing investors on whether to keep its combined coal assets or spin them off after it completed a deal to buy the majority of Teck’s steelmaking coal business last month.

Retaining the coal assets “offers the lowest risk pathway to create value for Glencore shareholders today”, Glencore Chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said.

First-half core earnings, or EBITDA, slumped 33% to $6.3 billion, hit by a decline in prices for key commodities.

Adjusted EBIT for Glencore’s marketing division at $1.5 billion was down 16% from a year earlier and is tracking an annualised $3 billion, Glencore said, adding that the number reflected a lower contribution from energy.

The Swiss-based company is guiding marketing EBIT at between $3.0 and $3.5 billion this year.

“Marketing business is implying a full year EBIT run rate of $3.5 billion, which we see as solid in the context of its long term guidance” analysts at Citigroup said in a note.

(Reporting by Felix Njini and Pratima Desai; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Mark Potter and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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