In 1990, Marc Rich + Co. buy a 34.5% stake in Südelektra, becoming the largest shareholder.1 This marks the start of a long relationship between Glencore and Xstrata that later culminates in a takeover. As separate entities for now, the two groups nonetheless maintain close ties and later end up sharing a chairman and selling assets to one another when cash is needed.2
1 Alessio Maria Matteocci, “Glencore PLC: Decoding a Black Box” (MSc. diss., Luiss Guido Carli 2017), https://tesi.luiss.it/18832/
2 Rebecca Bream, “Xstrata raises investor hackles over asset sale,” Financial Times, January 29, 2009, https://www.ft.com/content/54eb57ba-ee3a-11dd-b791-0000779fd2ac