Rio's Riversdale bid crawls across finish line

8th Apr 2011 08:20

Mining giant Rio Tinto has finally managed to get majority control of Australian mining company Riversdale, bringing to an end a bid saga that has been running since Christmas.Rio said its shareholding has passed 50% of coal miner Riversdale, and may grow further as the company's offer remains open until 20 April.The AS$3.9bn (£2.4bn) bid was initially launched on 23 December, 2010, but the terms had to be modified and the offer period extended repeatedly as Riversdale shareholders proved reluctant to commit themselves without knowing more about Rio's plans for the company, while some other big shareholders needed time to unwind equity swaps and settle trades that occurred during the offer period.Having crawled across the finish line, Rio confirmed the appointment of Rio Tinto Energy chief executive Doug Ritchie, Rio Tinto Energy chief development officer - coal Matt Coulter and Rio Tinto Australia managing director David Peever to the Riversdale board."The new Riversdale board will reflect our majority shareholding and help clear the way for the development of Riversdale's assets as quickly as possible," said Doug Ritchie."The growth prospects for the Riversdale assets are considerable. We remain optimistic about the outlook for the global coking coal market. This is a great opportunity for our business to deliver on the development of a large-scale coking coal resource," Ritchie added.Having secured control of Riversdale, Rio Tinto gains control of two adjoining projects in Mozambique: the Benga project, a 65:35 joint venture with Tata Steel, and the Zambeze coal project.Riversdale also has several other prospective exploration tenements in Mozambique. ---jh