Rio deal could be investigated

Rio deal could be investigated

By Peter Smith in Sydney and Rebecca Bream in London

Published: February 5 2008 09:06 | Last updated: February 5 2008 23:27

China’s purchase of a 9 per cent stake in Rio Tinto, the Australia and UK-listed mining group, may become the subject of an investigation by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s prime minister, and Stephen Smith, the foreign minister who this week hosted his Chinese counterpart in Canberra, have faced repeated questioning in recent days over whether Australian authorities will review last week’s raid on the Rio share register by Aluminium Corporation of China and Alcoa.

The Chinese state-owned mining company, known as Chinalco, and the US aluminium producer spent $14bn (£7.1bn) on a 9 per cent stake in Rio.

The purchase came as BHP Billiton, the UK and Australia-listed mining group, last night upped the stakes in its campaign to gain control of Rio, raising its offer to 3.4 BHP shares for each Rio share, a bid worth more than £70bn.

“The reason we have Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) guidelines and a foreign takeover act is to ensure that the Australian national interest is always met,” Mr Rudd said.

Mr Rudd added that the FIRB deliberated on “significant foreign equity” trans-actions in Australian companies and that existing guidelines would be applied. Xiao Yaqing, Chinalco president, said in Sydney this week that his company had made a voluntary submission to the FIRB, which must approve foreign stakes in Australia-listed companies of 15 per cent or greater.

The authorities have some discretionary power to investigate when a foreign company looks to acquire a significant minority stake even less than 15 per cent.

Speaking at a press conference in Canberra yesterday, Yang Jiechi, China’s foreign minister, said Chinalco and Alcoa had made an “independent decision” to buy the Rio stake.

“They did it, I guess, for their companies’ own good and they think that to do this would help the development of their businesses. So I guess it is part of the two companies’ development strategy, and which conforms to international practice and to market rules, in terms of mining co-operation,” he said.

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Japan steel chief criticises China’s Rio move

By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo

Published: February 6 2008 17:44 | Last updated: February 6 2008 17:44

The move by Chinalco, the state-owned Chinese mining company, to spoil BHP Billiton’s bid for Rio Tinto drew criticism from the head of Japan’s steel association who said government intervention in resource markets threatened to create an uneven playing field for steelmakers.

Hajime Bada, chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and chief executive of JFE, Japan’s second biggest steel producer, said he was “very concerned” that state-owned companies and sovereign wealth funds could build dominant positions in the resource sector and funnel output to their own countries.

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ＢＨＰのリオ買収にあらためて反対を表明＝ＪＦＥスチール社長
2008年 02月 6日 16:00 JST

　［東京　６日　ロイター］　ＪＦＥホールディングス(5411.T: 株価, ニュース, レポート)傘下の鉄鋼事業会社ＪＦＥスチール（東京都千代田区）の馬田一社長（日本鉄鋼連盟会長）は６日、都内で講演し、鉱山世界最大手の英豪系ＢＨＰビリトン(BHP.AX: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)(BLT.L: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)によるリオ・ティント(RIO.L: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)(RIO.L: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)の買収に対し、あらためて反対を表明した。

　ＢＨＰは６日、リオに対し１４７４億ドル規模の株式交換による買収案を正式に提示した。馬田社長は、２社が一緒になると鉄鉱石でシェアが７０％に達するとし「われわれの考え方は変わらない。反対は反対。鉄連としても反対という考えは変わっていない」と述べた。

　反対表明に加え「この買収が独禁法上問題がないのか、独禁法の観点から正しいかチェックする」としている。ただ、日本の公正取引委員会は、海外の案件についてストップをかけることができないため、鉄連は、公正取引委員会に対し、オーストラリアや欧州の独占禁止法当局が何らかのアクションを取るよう働き掛けを要請。現在、公正取引委員会と欧州の当局との間で話し合いがなされているという。