Glencore says long-term strategy may involve sale of Bunge stake

LONDON (Reuters) -Miner and trader Glencore said on Wednesday that its long-term strategy could involve the sale of its 16.4% stake in enlarged global agribusiness Bunge Global some time in the future.

Glencore became the owner of the 16.4% stake after Bunge closed a long-delayed deal to merge with Glencore-backed grain handler Viterra in July, two years after announcing the $34 billion mega-deal.

"The agriculture business is not necessarily consistent with our business model," Glencore CEO Gary Nagle told a media call on Wednesday after the company released its first-half financial results. "Having a 16.4% shareholding in Bunge is probably not something that would be for Glencore in the long term."

He added that this did not mean Glencore would be in a rush to sell the stake, and if it ever decided to do that "we would do it in absolute collaboration and conjunction with Bunge, its board and its management".

The merger with Viterra enhanced Bunge's grain exporting and oilseed processing businesses in the United States and expanded Bunge's export capacity and physical grain storage and handling footprint in major wheat suppliers Canada and Australia, according to analysts.

Glencore's aim is to maximise the value of this investment, while the possible "exit of that at some stage in the future would be done very smartly and carefully to ensure that we preserve that value," the CEO added.

Glencore said on July 2 that its 16.4% stake in enlarged Bunge had a market value of $2.6 billion at the deal close, and that those shares were viewed by the miner as a surplus capital.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt. Editing by Mark Potter)