Rio Tinto sells another part of Alcan

22nd Sep 2009 07:21

Indebted mining giant Rio Tinto is to continue its selling spree by selling Alcan Composites, part of its Alcan Engineered Products division.The business is being sold for US$349m to Swiss company Schweiter Technologies. The deal is expected to complete by the end of the year once the regulatory formalities and employee consultations have taken place.The sale follows on from last week’s disposal of a 56% stake in the Alcan Engineered Products Cable business to Platinum Equity.'In the last three months we have made significant inroads into divesting the downstream assets acquired with Alcan, including offers or agreed sales for the majority of Alcan Packaging and Cable,' said Guy Elliott, finance director of Rio Tinto. In the 12 months to August 2009 Alcan Composites had sales of US$649m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of US$54m.The sale brings the total amount raised by Ro Tinto through asset sales to $7bn since March 2008.