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Article: Chinalco president says purchase of Rio Tinto a strategic investment, could sell stake to BHP
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- February 4, 2008
- Author:
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The head of the Chinese company that recently bought a chunk of mining giant Rio Tinto said Monday it was a strategic investment, and hinted his company would consider selling to BHP Billiton if the price was right.
Xiao Yaqing, the president of Aluminum Corp. of China, was in Australia Monday for meetings with government officials and to brief journalists on the purchase, with Alcoa Inc., of 12 percent of London-based Rio Tinto PLC for US$14 billion (9.5 billion).
The purchase intensified market speculation about the prospects of BHP's US$130 billion (87 billion) informal bid to merge with Rio Tinto, a deal that would create a monolithic mining company and that Chinese ...