Tony Hayward to be named Glencore Xstrata chairman

It is known that the search process, led by Peter Grauer, interim chairman of Glencore's nominations committee, looked at a significant number of external candidates.

But the committee and the rest of the board eventually felt that Mr Hayward was the best man for the job, following a shortlist believed to have included Roger Agnelli, the former boss of Brazilian miner Vale, and Sir Frank Chapman, the former BG Group chief executive.

The appointment has been vetted with select major shareholders, who are understood to have insisted Mr Hayward could not take on the high profile position while holding another full time post indefinitely.

As a result he is expected to step down from Genel in due course, once a suitable successor has been found and a handover period allowed to take place.

It is thought shareholders insisted on an increasingly full-time chairman in part to counter-balance Ivan Glasenberg, the company's powerful chief executive who holds an 8.3pc stake in the company.

Considerable speculation regarding Mr Hayward's likelihood of remaining chairman has swirled around City circles in recent months, but until now it was not known how it would sit with his Genel role.

The announcement comes ahead of Glencore's annual meeting on May 20.

Mr Glasenberg had promised to name a permanent chairman by the meeting.

For Mr Hayward the appointment is confirmation of his return to the top flight of global business, following his resignation from BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in April 2010.

Glencore is one of the 10 biggest companies on the FTSE 100, and is the world's largest diversified commodities trader.

Mr Hayward spent some time out of the limelight following his exit from BP in Autumn 2010 before returning as chief executive of Genel in June 2011, following cash shell Vallares' reverse takeover of Turkish oil specialist Genel Enerji.

Spokesmen for Glencore and Genel declined to comment.

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