None will come under closer scrutiny than Qatar Holdings, now approaching 12pc of Xstrata and vehemently against the deal.
But this sovereign wealth fund’s behaviour has appeared more akin to a hedge fund playing a game of arbitrage by taking a tactically significant stake and trying to force a higher price. It has spent the best part of £3.3bn acquiring its Xstrata stake after the terms of the merger were announced. It claims to admire Xstrata greatly but has only expressed this, in a seemingly high risk game of poker, after the deal announcement. It looks like a bet that its aggressive position-taking will trigger an improvement in the merger terms from Glencore’s chief executive Ivan Glasenberg.
The Qataris didn’t splash out in the years before the deal when Mick Davis, Xstrata’s boss, was delivering the company’s rapid growth. It didn’t meet management to discuss the company’s success during a rapid expansion phase. It has waited to do all these things in a short window after the deal emerged.
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