(Bloomberg) -- One of Justin Trudeau’s senior cabinet ministers said Canada is monitoring Glencore Plc’s attempted takeover of Teck Resources Ltd., pointing out the country benefits from having major companies headquartered domestically.
“We are following it very closely,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Monday in a phone interview. But he added that his cabinet colleagues won’t pre-judge the “commercial conversations” that are taking place.
Wilkinson said Teck is an important player in Canada’s mining space not just because of critical minerals projects, but also as a contributor to the economy of his home province of British Columbia, including its coal business.
Teck is racing to secure investor support for a spinoff of the coal operation ahead of an April 26 vote while fending off an unsolicited $23 billion takeover offer from Swiss commodities giant Glencore for the whole company.
Wilkinson said it’s a “positive thing for Canada” to have major companies headquartered locally.
“We are a country that would love to have more corporate offices in this country that actually drive research and development spending,” he said. “And so obviously we are watching this with great interest and certainly having conversations.”
But the minister stressed that he won’t jump ahead of talks between the commercial players, or any potential deal review that would be overseen by his cabinet colleague, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
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