Rio Tinto extends Riversdale offer, increases stake

On March 21, Anglo-Australian iron ore giant Rio Tinto Group announced that it has extended the offer period for its takeover bid for Africa-focused Australian coal miner Riversdale Mining Limited (Riversdale) by three trading days to April 6.
 
Rio Tinto's previously announced $16.5 offer price was also increased by three trading days to March 28, 2011, if it obtains interest in more than 50 percent of Riversdale shares.
 
Accordingly, the additional time would allow some market participants to finalize the unwinding of equity swaps and to settle trades that have occurred on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) before they can accept into the offer or the Institutional Acceptance Facility (IAF).
 
In addition, Rio Tinto has also announced that its shareholding in Riversdale has increased from 33.04 percent to 34.94 percent as of March 21, including acceptance facilities.
 
As SteelOrbis previously reported, largest stakeholders Tata Steel and CSN have recently increased their stakes in Riversdale to 27.1 percent and 19.9 respectively. These two largest stakeholders have not made any moves to sell their stakes to Rio Tinto following the declaration of the bid.
 
Riversdale owns large coal mines in Mozambique, including the Benga project and the neighboring Zambeze project which have high quality coking coal.