The Glencore shareholder reshuffle - FT.com Ivan Glasenberg is synonymous with Glencore. Since taking over as chief executive in 2002, the 55-year-old South African has driven a transformation of the trading house from employee-owned middleman to publicly listed operator of mines and oilfields. He has also accumulated a personal shareholding of more than 15 per cent, worth $6.1bn even after a fall in commodity prices. But he may soon surrender his position as Glencore's largest shareholder. If the proposed merger with miner Xstrata is approved by shareholders and regulators, Mr Glasenberg is likely to be usurped at the top of the shareholder register by Qatar Holding, the sovereign wealth fund that is Xstrata's second-largest shareholder after Glencore. As revealed in the latest version of the scheme documents, published on Thursday, Qatar Holding would own 8.45 per cent of the new company if the merger goes ahead on the current terms. Mr Glasenberg would have a fractionally smaller stake, with 8.27 per cent. That is the result of Mr Glasenberg's eleventh-hour decision last month to bow to Qatar's demands for a higher price and raise his offer from 2.8 to 3.05 Glencore shares per Xstrata share. The equation is finely balanced. Mr Glasenberg may succeed in retaining - or regaining - his place as the largest shareholder if he continues to reinvest his dividends in Glencore shares as he has done in the past and Qatar does not increase its stake any further. And the exact size of Qatar's shareholding will depend on whether or not a small number of Xstrata options that it has sold are exercised. But even if he is overtaken as Glencore's largest shareholder, Mr Glasenberg, who joined the firm in 1984 as a trainee in Johannesburg and embodies the shrewd qualities that have made the group's traders famous, is unlikely to lose control. With the new deal, he will become chief executive of the merged company within six months of completion. Moreover, many of the largest shareholders will be his long-standing lieutenants. While Blackrock, the fund manager, would hold a 4.41 per cent stake according to the documents published on Thursday, most of the next largest shareholders would be senior Glencore executives. Daniel Maté and Telis Mistakidis, co-heads of copper, lead and zinc, would own 3.13 and 3.11 per cent of the new company, respectively. Tor Peterson, head of coal, would have a 2.75 per cent stake, and Alex Beard, head of oil, would own 2.40 per cent.