BHP-Rio: A Golden League-Table Nugget
For investment bankers, the possibility of a $150-billion-plus union between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto is like stumbling on a big golden nugget alongside an erstwhile barren creek.
Given that M&A activity has practically ground to a halt, this could be the last opportunity the banks have to improve their standings in the rankings of advisers that will be tabulated at the end of the year. (To say nothing of the kind of fees that get paid out on a deal like this, which would be one of the largest of all time.)...
BHP-Rio: The $100 Billion Lowball Pitch?That is what Rio, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, is telling its shareholders to consider. Rejecting an approximately $100 billion approach from rival BHP Billiton, Rio says the bid undervalues the company and its prospects.
People close to the matter say BHP’s initial offer of three of its own shares for each of Rio’s is too low, but they don’t argue the logic of a deal bringing together two natural-resource titans amid a historic commodities boom. (Based on the current share prices, the offer amounts to a slim premium of around 4% to Rio’s price of 5157 pence in London.)...MORE
