Clara Denina, Helen Reid

LONDON (Reuters] -Glencore said Tuesday it would set aside $1.5 million for market manipulation and bribery probes. The company announced the announcement as it reported record earnings due to booming raw materials prices.

The company also offered a payout of $4 billion to investors.

Following corruption claims relating to its activities in Venezuela, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2018, the company is being investigated in Brazil, Britain, and the United States.

We recognize that there have been past misconducts in the company. “We’ve done everything we can to fix that,” Gary Nagle, CEO of the company, told reporters.

Glencore (OTC-:) faces separate corruption/bribery investigations from Swiss and Dutch police.

Tyler Broda from RBC Capital Markets stated, “Though the Swiss- and Dutch investigations remain open, we think that the main investigations have been quantified. This will likely reduce the risk to the company from this unknown known, which has been a overhang for 2018.”

The company’s shares rose 3.9% to 437 pence at 09:09 GMT. This made it the top performer in an index of London peers.

Glencore announced that its net debt has been reduced to $6 Billion at 2021’s end, compared with $15.8B a year prior.

According to 15 analysts’ consensus estimates, adjusted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), increased 83% to record $21.3 Billion. That is an increase of $11.6 billion from a year ago.

These results are higher than the 2018 high, when Glencore was also buoyed in part by a commodities rally.

Nagle stated that the company has been reviewing its assets. 14 are going to be sold. The move is part of a refocusing of its portfolio towards what Nagle called “commodities for the future”, which will allow it to transition into a more sustainable economy.

Glencore is a miner of battery metals, cobalt, and nickel.

This strategy, which aims to exhaust its coal mining assets by mid-2040s and not sell them or spin them off, is different from that of other diversified miners such as BHP. Anglo American (LON:).

RUNNING DOWN COAL

Bluebell Capital Partners is an activist investor who last year asked the miner for separation of its thermal coal businesses. They have, in a Jan. 24-dated letter made public Monday, suggested a new structure that Glencore could use to keep control of the spun off unit.

On Tuesday, Nagle stated that shareholders supported the company’s plan to reduce its coal mines in the middle of the 2040s.

The coal plays an integral part in the business. He said that shareholders are supportive of the strategy and they support coal in the business.

Glencore has two major shareholders: Qatar Holding (a unit of the Gulf Arab states sovereign wealth fund) and Ivan Glasenberg, ex-CEO, with 18.5%.

This Tuesday’s $4 billion dividend to shareholders is comparable to the $2.8 Billion Glencore promised last August to return.

Thermal coal prices, which are the most polluting fossil energy, have reached new highs due to a lack of supply and fears about a glut of European gas.

Glencore saw its costs rise in 2021 due to rising fuel prices and the need for other minerals in mining processing. This was in addition to tightening labor markets.

The prices of Glencore’s metals have increased more quickly than inflation but supply is still under pressure.

The company decided to care for and maintain its Italy zinc sulphide plant until there was “a significant shift in power market price”.

“We’re seeing inflationary pressure throughout the business…so, we took action at our Smelters. Nagle explained that the high energy costs have caused us to reduce production at European smelters.

Nagle indicated that there are no plans at the moment to bring this production back.