Written by: Press Trust of India
2 min readMelbourne/new DelhiMar 11, 2011 12:26 AM IST
First published on: Mar 11, 2011 at 12:26 AM IST
Global mining giant Rio Tinto today said it has improved its bid price to AUD 16.50 per share for acquiring Australian firm Riversdale following the lukewarm response from shareholders of the targeted firm.
The mining giant,however,said that the new offer would be conditional on acquiring stake of over 50 per cent in the company and it will not increase its price,if no competing bid is made.
The increase in the offer price from AUD 16 to AUD 16.50 gives Riversdale shareholders a highly attractive premium and now is the time for them to accept our recommended bid, Rio Tinto Energy chief executive Doug Ritchie said. It also extended its offer period for the third time to April 01. The new offer of Rio Tinto would value Riversdale at AUD 4.03 billion.
Rios move has come within 10 days of Tata Steel,the largest shareholder in the Australian firm,increasing its stake by 2.93 per cent to 27.14 per cent. Tata Steel along with Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional CSN,which had recently increased its stake in Riversdale to 19.9 per cent,together hold over 47 per cent stake in the Australian firm,making the job difficult for Rio Tinto to take over Riversdale.
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