Glencore said to prepare sweetened Teck bid

Glencore Plc is getting closer to increasing its offer for Teck Resources Ltd., in a move aimed at ending weeks of limbo in the battle over the Canadian miner’s future.

The Switzerland-based commodities giant is working on a potential improvement to its bid that could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. By raising its offer and ratcheting up shareholder pressure, Glencore is seeking to force Teck to the negotiating table, the people said.

The bitter fight that transfixed the mining world moved behind the scenes since late April, when Teck’s board was forced into an embarrassing reversal after failing to win enough investor support for a plan to split the company. Teck at the time reiterated its opposition to Glencore’s US$23 billion bid, and Glencore repeated that it was willing to go higher, but there has been little public movement since then.

The situation remains fluid, and Glencore’s plans could still change, the people said. Even if it can deliver a big enough increase to win over Teck’s shareholders, management and investors, there is still a potentially larger hurdle to face: Norman Keevil, the Canadian mining patriarch whose family’s “supervoting” shares give him a veto on any big decisions, has come out strongly against a Glencore takeover.