Glencore to Buy Remaining Stake in Xstrata for $41 Billion LONDON - Glencore International, the biggest commodities trading company in the world, agreed on Tuesday to buy the remaining stake in Xstrata it does not own already in a deal that would create a company with a market value of nearly $90 billion. Glencore, which already owns 34 percent of Xstrata, will pay about $41 billion for the remaining stake, valuing the mining company at nearly $62 billion. The offer represents a 15 percent premium to Xstrata's closing share price on Feb. 1. The deal will create a commodities giant, combining Xstrata's global mining operations with Glencore's trading and marketing businesses in copper, nickel, coal and the like. The company, to be renamed Glencore Xstrata, would be the fourth-largest diversified miner in the world, with revenue of $209 billion and pretax profit of $16 billion, based on 2011 figures. "The proposed deal combines Xstrata's high margin mining operations with Glencore's low margin sales and marketing business," said Charles Cooper, a mining analyst at Oriel Securities in London. The new company can perform better as a whole group than as separate entities. In morning trading in London, Xstrata's share price fell 2.1 percent, while stock in Glencore rose 1.4 percent. The mining sector has been a hot area for deal-making in recent years, driven by growing demand for commodities in emerging markets. In 2011, mining companies announced $168.6 billion of acquisitions, a 26 percent increase over the previous year, according to data from Dealogic. The union of Glencore and Xstrata has been long anticipated. Last year, Glencore raised $10 billion through an initial public offering, saying that it planned to use the cash in part to expand through acquisitions. The deal will also bring together two businesses that were split about a decade ago. Xstrata became a publicly listed company in 2002 after it acquired the Australian and South African coal assets of Glencore. In February 2011, Xstrata's chief, Mr. Davis, called it "unsustainable in the longer term" to have the two companies listed separately. "A merger between Glencore and Xstrata offers a unique opportunity to create a new business model in our industry to respond to a changing environment," Xstrata's chief executive, Mick Davis, told analysts on Tuesday. Increased scale and diversity will improve our risk profile, enhance access to capital markets and allow us to participate in industry consolidation. Mr. Davis will become the chief executive of the combined company. Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore's current chief executive, will become deputy chief executive of the new company, while Xstrata's chairman, John Bond, will be the chairman of the proposed Glencore Xstrata. The company anticipates the deal would lead to annual cost savings of at least of $500 million from 2012. The company expects its annual growth to reach 11 percent over the next five years, compared with the industry average of 7 percent, according to a company statement. Both companies have benefited from increasing demand for commodities from emerging economies. Xstrata generated revenue of $33.9 billion and reported a pretax profit of $11.7 billion for the 12 months ended Dec. 31. Glencore posted revenue of $186 billion and a pretax profit of $6.5 billion in the same period. The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of this year, and is backed by the boards of both companies. The merger must still pass regulatory muster in various regions, including the European Union, China and the United States Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and the law firm Linklaters advised Glencore on the deal. Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Nomura advised Xstrata.