On March 16, Anglo-Australian iron ore giant Rio Tinto Group has announced that its shareholding in Africa-focused Australian coal miner Riversdale Mining Limited (Riversdale) has increased from 30.59 percent to 33.04 percent as of March 18, including acceptance facilities.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Rio Tinto and Riversdale have entered into a ‘bid implementation agreement' for a cash offer through which Rio Tinto seeks to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of the company. The bidder has recently raised its original offer of AU$16 per Riversdale share to AU$16.50 per share. The offer is conditional on Rio obtaining a more than 50 percent stake in Riversdale by March 23, although the bid will remain open until April 1.
Major stakeholders remain silent
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.
Riversadale owns large coal mines in Mozambique, including the Benga project and the neighboring Zambeze project which have high quality coking coal.