LONDON (Reuters) - Glencore Xstrata <GLEN.L> wooed investors on its debut as a combined miner and trader on Friday, with promises of dividend payments and signals of aggressive cost cuts that mean it could beat a planned synergy target of $500 million. Glencore, now the world's fourth largest diversified mining company, began trading in London a day after the group tied up the biggest acquisition in the sector to date.

By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON (Reuters) - China's antitrust authorities removed the last obstacle to Glencore's <GLEN.L> $30 billion (19 billion pounds) takeover of miner Xstrata on Tuesday after the commodities trader agreed to sell a $5.2 billion mining project to ease its grip on copper. Xstrata's Las Bambas mine in Peru had been expected to be sacrificed to secure the approval of China's Ministry of Commerce, but Glencore also agreed 8-year commitments covering the supply of copper, zinc and lead to China.

A long-awaited merger between Swiss commodities trader Glencore with mining giant Xstrata has won a green light from China's regulator, clearing a key final hurdle, Glencore announced Tuesday. Glencore said in a statement that Beijing had given its backing on condition that once the merger was completed, the combined group sells its interest in the Las Bambas copper mine project in Peru to Chinese-approved players by the end of September 2014.