Via CNN Money:
China Development Bank, one of the country's major policy banks, built a stake of under 1 pct in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto in the past week, just prior to BHP Billiton's (NYSE:BHP) announcement of an unsolicited bid for Rio Tinto, the UK's Telegraph newspaper reported.From Resource Investor's Pitpundit blog:
The report said CDB was found to have been on the Rio Tinto share register following the announcement of the BHP Billiton bid....MORE
China, Russia might team with BHP to aim for Rio Tinto
After BHP Billiton’s [NYSE:BHP; LSE:BLT; ASX:BHP] failed attempt to bid on Rio Tinto [NYSE:RTP; LSE:RIO; ASX:RIO] this week, Rio may become the centre of a bidding war that is likely to include Chinese and Russian companies, according to analysts.“If you put together a consortium of Chinese, they could be out there, as well as the Russians, given there’s a lot of oil money being generated,” Shaw Stockbroking analyst John Colnan told Reuters.
And from the New York Times' DealBook blog:
BHP’s Rejected Offer for Rio May Trigger Bidding War
...A host of interested parties, from Chinese oil companies to Siberian nickel miners, have the potential to launch rival offers after massive stock market floats have brought companies excess funds, supplying the capital needed to finance a bid, Reuters noted.
“If you put together a consortium of Chinese, they could be out there, as well as the Russians, given there’s a lot of oil money being generated,” Shaw Stockbroking analyst John Colnan told the news service.
Furthermore, The New York Times reported that BHP’s offer, which would create a mining giant worth more than $350 billion and controlling more than a third of the world’s iron ore market, may prompt China, the largest buyer of iron ore, to make its own bid for Rio Tinto in order to safeguard its iron ore supply chain....
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have this from the Gillette Wyoming News-Record:
For sale: Rio Tinto coal mines
...At the time, Rio Tinto expected the $36.4 billion Alcan deal to increase its debt-to-equity ratio from 10 percent to 60 percent. Coal and uranium assets were quickly flagged by analysts and people within the industry as targets of a spin-off....
...WHO COULD BUY?
Now comes the waiting game of who might buy Rio Tinto as a whole, or in smaller parts.
In July, Arch Coal CEO Stephen Leer advised analysts to keep an eye on the largest international mining companies.
“We do believe that overall in both the East and West we’re heading into the period of consolidation, principally ... in the East,” Leer said at the time.
“We may see a transaction or two in the West — you always have the question of ‘do some of the big international mining houses (have) something different in their view of U.S. coal,’” he added. “We certainly think this is a possibility at some point in time.”
Meanwhile, on Friday, a New Orleans stock analyst said that if Rio Tinto’s assets in the Powder River Basin are sold, it was unlikely that an existing operator would buy them.
“It would be very difficult for Peabody, Arch and Foundation to make the acquisition because of the anti-trust issues,” said William Burns, a stock analyst covering the coal industry for Johnson Rice and Co.
Arch Coal faced scrutiny from federal regulators in 2004 during its purchase of Triton Coal Co., leading the St. Louis company to sell Buckskin mine to current owner Kiewitt Mining Group of Omaha, Neb.
Burns mentioned Consol Energy, which has extensive operations in eastern states, as a potential suitor....MORE
