Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan announced this weekend that Chinalco is more than welcome to 11% of Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO). He made it sound like there were some caveats, provisos, and addendums. But at the end of the day the Treasurer said, “I have decided to raise no objections under Australia’s foreign investment policy.” Okay. There are just two conditions that apply, though.
August 25th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "rio"
RBA Leaves Rates Unchanged, Rio Wraps Up Negotiations
The Reserve Bank of Australia isn’t moving rates up yet. The Bank left them at 7.25% after meeting yesterday in Sydney. Later this month it will review CPI data. But for now, the Bank seems satisfied that its rate-hike campaign has slowed demand in the Australian economy.
July 2nd, 2008 | The Daily Reckoning | 0 comments | Continued
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and the American Civil War
The S&P ASX/200 limped home yesterday to finish the fiscal year down 16.9%. Let’s call it 17. It was the first down year since 2002, or 1 BB (Before the Boom). If not for the iron-ore solid performance of BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP)-up 24.7% on the financial year-it would have been much worse for the ASX 200. Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) did its part to hold the line for the resource sector as well. Rio was up 38.2% for year, from $98 to $135.50.
July 1st, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
The Iron Ore Pricing War Between China & Australia
There are four fronts in the battle for pricing power in the iron ore market: BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), Fortescue (ASX: FMG), and spot market for iron ore. It’s hard to tell who is winning…or what losing really means. Andrew Forrest says he’d welcome Chinese investors on the Fortescue share register. But spots on the register are already at a premium. Over 70% of Fortescue’s issued capital is owned by just five major shareholders.
May 16th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
BHP Billiton: The Oil Company That is Not an Oil Company
Is BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) a serious oil player? Or, let’s put it this way. Does the fact that oil touched US$127 in futures trading contribute to BHP Billiton’s earnings and its war chest for its pursuit of Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO)? BHP thinks the answer is yes. BHP Billitons’s oil projects showed up in a research report we reviewed yesterday. The report tried to answer the question of where future global oil production would come from. There is a 32 million barrel per day gap between what the world…
May 14th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Chinese Foreign Mining Acquisition Equal to All of 2007
Spot coking coal (steel marking) prices have quadrupled in the last 12 months, and in the last two months they’ve doubled. The value of announced cross-border Chinese foreign mining acquisitions so far this calendar year…
April 14th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Rio Tinto’s Three Pillars of Growth for 2008
Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) out-punched BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) in the half-year-results contest. Rio Tinto reported $8.3 billion in “underlying profit.” Diggers and Drillers editor Al Robinson looks at BHP Billiton side-by-side with Rio Tinto and says, “Both had negative earnings growth at the bottom line (BHP Billiton -2.8%, Rio Tinto -1%). Both had positive earnings after strategically removing a few significant items (2.8%, 2%). Rio Tinto’s result was slightly above expectations, and BHP Billiton’s slightly below.”
February 14th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Reader Mail: What’s going on with BHP & RIO?
Australian investors are trying to sort out what’s going on between BHP and RIO. Time to look at some reader mail. “In reading all the articles about the BHP bid for Rio Tinto, I keep wondering why no one cites Kloppers’ disastrous strategy?…
February 11th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued