Rio Tinto in $3.8bn bid for Riversdale
MINING giant Rio Tinto was last night closing in on a $3.8billion (£2.47billion) takeover of Africa-focused coking coal miner Riversdale Mining.
Rio is understood to have upped a £2.26billion offer for the Australian company made earlier this month as it seeks to tap into soaring demand for coking coal from China and India.
A formal bid for Mozambique-focused Riversdale could flush out a counter-bid from one or more of a number of potential suitors thought to include Indian state companies as well as Anglo American, Xstrata and Brazil’s Vale, which owns nearby coal mines in Mozambique.
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India’s Tata Steel, which owns nearly a quarter of Riversdale, might also be interested but India’s International Coal Ventures consortium is believed to be looking at buying a stake in the company.
Winning the support of Tata, which along with Brazilian steel group CSN and US fund Passport Capital own a combined 56 per cent of Riversdale, will be key to Rio’s chances of success.
Mozambique is emerging as a potentially substantial coking coal supplier and Riversdale is seen as eventually supplying up to 10 per cent of the global market for the steel-making material.
Global mining deals have more than doubled to nearly $140billion this year, the highest level since 2007, as commodities prices have risen sharply.