Business

Rio Tinto lowers its sights in bid for Riversdale

Digging in: only 41% of shareholders are backing the offer
11 April 2012

Mining giant Rio Tinto today made a last-ditch bid to save its attempted takeover of rival Riversdale by lowering the hurdles for its A$3.9 billion (£2.5 billion) bid.

Rio was demanding 50% support for its A$16.50-a-share offer, but has won over just 41% of shareholders for the bid, and has lowered its acceptance threshold to 47%. Rio will pay Riversdale shareholders A$16 a share if it fails to reach the new target by April 6.

Riversdale is on Rio's shopping list because of its hard coking coal projects in Mozambique. The main stumbling blocks to the bid have been India's Tata Steel and Brazil's CSN, which own 47% of Riversdale.

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