Mining giant Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN) and joint venture partner Qatar Investment Authority have offloaded the majority of their stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft for a reported €7.5bn.
The two only snapped up the 19.5% holding last December for around €10.2bn in what was seen at the time as a surprising deal.
Glencore paid in €300mln up front and the Qatari Group put up €2.5bn in cash with the remainder funded through debt.
READ: Glencore announces Rosneft stake purchase
Some of the proceeds generated will go towards paying down that debt that was used to finance the deal.
But Glencore and QIA have now decided to sell a 14.16% stake in the Russia-controlled firm to CEFC China Energy at a 16% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average, which should ensure that they net a small profit on their original investment.
After the sale, Glencore will retain a 0.5% interest while QIA will 4.7% of Rosneft’s shares.
Glencore shares were off 1.1% at 364.4p, although some of that was due to slowing exports from China, the world’s largest metals consumer.