(Bloomberg) -- Glencore (LON:GLEN) Plc will buy back as much as $1 billion of its shares, a move that may soothe investor confidence after the world’s biggest commodity trader was hit by a U.S. Department of Justice probe earlier this week.
The buyback program will start Thursday and last through year-end, the Swiss miner and trader said in a statement. The first part will total up to 350 million pounds ($463 million) and end by Aug. 7, and any ordinary shares purchased will be held in treasury, it said.
Glencore’s tumultuous year worsened earlier this week, when U.S. authorities demanded documents relating to possible corruption and money laundering regarding its business in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela over the past decade. The shares plunged 8.1 percent on Tuesday, the most in two years.