Glencore International AG, the world’s largest commodities trader, plans to raise as much as $11 billion from an initial public offering in London and Hong Kong, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

The company will announce a price range for the IPO on May 4, when management is scheduled to start meeting potential investors, the person said, declining to be identified as the process is confidential. The IPO may raise $9 billion to $11 billion, the person said.

Glencore’s IPO will be the world’s biggest this year, as stock markets recover from Japan’s nuclear disaster and unrest in the Middle East. A real-estate investment trust controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing received orders for all shares offered in a $1.7 billion IPO on the first day of the sale, people with knowledge of the matter said yesterday.

“Market sentiment will keep improving if Japan’s nuclear crisis doesn’t get any worse,” said Nelson Yan, who helps oversee $90 million as investment manager at Mayfair Pacific Financial Group in Hong Kong. “As a commodities trader, Glencore benefits more or less indirectly from an industry that’s attracting a lot of investor interest.”

Commodities have rallied over the past year as Chinese growth drives up demand. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI spot index of 24 raw materials has jumped 39 percent in the past 12 months, reaching the highest level since August 2008 on April 8.

Intention to Float

Glencore may file a so-called intention to float document in London on April 14, said three people with knowledge of the sale, who declined to be identified because the plan is private.

The value of Glencore’s 10 largest holdings, including a 34 percent stake in Xstrata Plc, fell to $31.7 billion as of 11:57 a.m. in London. It yesterday advanced to $32.6 billion, the highest level since last April. The value dropped as low as $28 billion last month after Japan’s worst earthquake on record prompted a global stocks selloff.

Initial offerings in Hong Kong raised $2.3 billion in the first three months of the year, while companies planning share sales in the second quarter, including Milan-based Prada SpA, may push the total value of offerings to $20 billion this quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

$60 Billion Value

Glencore may trade in Hong Kong under the ticker 805, the first person said. The Asian offering will account for about 25 percent of the sale, the person said. The company may be valued at more than $60 billion, RBC Capital Markets said March 3.

Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG and Morgan Stanley will manage the IPO as global coordinators, while Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale SA and UBS AG may be named bookrunners, two people with knowledge of the sale said March 22.

Simon Buerk, a spokesman for Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore, declined to comment.

An IPO by Glencore, which changed its name from Marc Rich & Co. after management bought out former fugitive U.S. financier Marc Rich in 1994, would end more than three decades of being a closely held partnership.

After its Xstrata holding, Glencore’s next largest stake is an 8.8 percent interest in United Co. Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer. Glencore also owns 74 percent of Katanga Mining Ltd. and 71 percent of Australian nickel producer Minara Resources Ltd. It holds stakes in Century Aluminum Co. and Nyrstar NV, the biggest zinc producer.

Glencore’s 10 largest mining-company investments are listed in its published holdings as of Dec. 31, according to its annual report to bondholders obtained by Bloomberg News.