LONDON BRIEFING:THERE'S a fine line between being a colourful character and becoming a liability – and septuagenarian Simon Murray, chairman of Glencore, has just crossed that line.

With some ill-advised remarks on women in the workplace, the newly appointed head of the world’s largest commodities trader has dragged his company into a ferocious row over sexism in British business.

The timing could not be worse: the secretive commodities trading group is limbering up for what will be the biggest flotation on the London stock market, with a valuation of $60 billion at the upper end of the price range.

The company is already viewed with suspicion by many in the City, partly because of its controversial history and partly because its operations have, until now, been shrouded in secrecy.

Glencore has its origins in the business founded in 1974 by international commodities trader Marc Rich, who was indicted in the US in the early 1980s on charges of tax evasion and illegal oil deals. He became a fugitive in Switzerland and was later notoriously pardoned by US president Bill Clinton in his final few hours in the Oval office.

Rich is no longer associated with the business, which is still based in Switzerland, but the air of controversy continues to surround the company.

Glencore is unlike anything the London market has seen before, and not just because of its size. The business is owned by 485 of its employees, each of whom will reap a windfall of $100 million when the company floats. Among those, Glencore’s top 65 traders, already multimillionaires, will receive the astounding sum of more than $500 million each.

The decision to float means Glencore has been forced to lift the veil of secrecy that has shielded its operations as a private company for almost four decades.

The full detail has yet to be revealed, however, and the City is eagerly awaiting the publication of its flotation prospectus in the next few days. The company aims to raise up to $11 billion in its listing, much of which will be used to fund acquisitions.

Glencore has already risked criticism by appointing former BP chief executive Tony Hayward to its board as senior independent director.

The commodity trader is one of the world’s largest oil suppliers, handling 3 per cent of daily global oil consumption – Hayward certainly knows the oil industry, but his reputation has been shredded by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The company courted further controversy by attempting to hire Hayward’s predecessor, Lord Browne, as chairman. That ended very messily indeed, with the Glencore camp claiming they realised at the 11th hour that Browne was not the right man for the job while sources close to Browne hinted he had serious governance concerns over the business.

Which brings us to Simon Murray, the 71 year old who was deemed to be the right man to head the soon-to-be public commodities behemoth.

The Hong Kong-based former head of Hutchinson Whampoa could have walked straight off the pages of a Boy’s Own adventure story – he’s served in the French Foreign Legion, fought in the Algerian war, climbed Everest and trekked unsupported to the South Pole.

His reply, when questioned by a journalist earlier this month on reports that he had been shortlisted for the Glencore job, was in similar vein: “This is very exciting, but you are talking to someone who has been chased by a leopard.”

Now Murray is being chased by an angry mob including business secretary Vince Cable and Lord Davies, author of the recent government report into women in the boardroom, after saying he was reluctant to hire women because “pregnant ladies take nine months off”.

Although “quite as intelligent as men”, women “have a tendency not to be so involved quite often and they’re not so ambitious in business as men because they’ve got better things to do. Quite often they like bringing up their children and all sorts of other things,” he said.

Murray’s views on women in the workplace would have caused offence whoever had uttered them, but their impact was all the greater given his position as chairman of a company soon to become one of the leading lights of the FTSE 100.

His swift apology did little to appease the widespread anger created by the comments. Cable described Murray’s views as “unbelievably primitive”, while Lord Davies, who has already warned British companies they face having quotas imposed on them if they fail to increase the representation of women in the boardroom, said they were “ill-judged and inappropriate”.

The former foreign legionnaire is a gentleman of a certain age and his archaic views were once widespread in the City.

Doubtless, there are others who think that way but they at least have the sense to realise such views are unacceptable. As one potential Glencore investor remarked yesterday: “I can’t believe he said it out loud.”

Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardian in London