A Clue To When The Rio Four Will Be Charged Or Released?

Conspiracy theorists start here: Xinhua has a report on the growing dispute with Australia over the detention without charge of four Rio Tinto executives, one an Australian citizen, on allegations of stealing state secrets. It is titled, China Striving To Create Fair Trading Environment, so you get its drift. But it concludes with the following tantalizing [...]

Anglo American Next In Chinalco’s Sights?

The consolidation of the global natural resources industry in response to the bursting of the the commodities bubble of the early years of the decade and the subsequent global recession means one of two things: more joint ventures such as the one between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in iron ore or more combinations within [...]

Beijing Hints At Flexing Its New Antitrust Muscles On Behalf Of Jilted Chinalco

There was obviously some wounded pride following the collapse of Chinalco’s proposed $19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto. But to add insult to injury, Rio is now proposing an iron-ore joint venture with BHP Billiton in Western Australia.
Such a combination would account for 80% of the exports from one of China’s main sources of supply, [...]

Chinalco-Rio Update

Rio Tinto has confirmed that the $19.5 billion Chinalco investment is off and that it will instead raise $15.2 billion through a rights issue (see “Chinalco’s Rio Deal On Verge Of Collapse“). Chinalco’s president Xiong Weiping said in a brief statement that the company is “very disappointed”. It is not clear what Chinalco’s next steps will be [...]

Chinalco’s Rio Deal On Verge Of Collapse

Some Rio Tinto shareholders have long questioned the economic logic of the company taking a $19.5 billion investment from Chinalco, saying existing investors could raise the money through a rights issue. Now it appears they have the upper hand. Reports from London say that the Rio board is expected shortly to announce that it has [...]

Hunan Valin Gets Australia’s Approval For Fortescue Stake

The second of the three big outstanding Chinese investments in Australian natural resources companies has got the nod of approval from Canberra. Hunan Valin Iron and Steel can go ahead with taking a $438 million stake in Fortescue Metals. The decision comes less than a week after Australia barred another state-owned Chinese firm, Minmetals, from [...]

Will Australia Retaliate For Coca-Cola’s Blocked China Bid?

As the dust settles on Beijing’s decision to block Coca-Cola’s $2.3 billion bid for Huiyuan Juice on antitrust grounds, how does Chinalco’s proposed $19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto look?
Chinese officials have been quick to stress that the Huiyan decision, which stopped what would have been the largest foreign investment in China, was not [...]

Chinalco’s Xiao Moves On And Up

Chinalco’s president, Xiao Yaqing, is moving on at what would seem to be a critical time for the company with its $19.5 billion capital injection into Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto now starting to do the rounds of regulatory approvals. But having announced the proposed deal in London earlier this month, Xiao is now not just [...]

Rio Tinto Confident Chinalco Deal Will Pass Australian Regualtors

Rio Tinto’s chief strategy officer, Doug Ritchie, says he is confident Chinalco’s proposed $19.5 billion capital injection will pass muster with the Australian regulators. The country’s Foreign Investment Review Board is seen as a key hurdle for the deal to clear, given the misgivings it has previously expressed about the state-owned aluminum company’s potential sway [...]

BHP Billiton Drops Rio Tinto Bid Cheering Steelmakers

A rare piece of good news for China’s beleaguered steelmakers: BHP Billiton is walking away from its bid for Rio Tinto. Aluminum Corp. of China, Chinalco and other Chinese steelmakers were among the most outspoken about fears that the combination of two of the largest natural resources companies would have too much control over iron [...]