 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Australia says China's Rio failure down to shareholder power
Sydney (AFP) June 17, 2009 Australia on Wednesday told China it must get used to dealing with shareholders, as the Asian giant comes to terms with its failure to secure a 19.5 billion US dollar tie-up with mining giant Rio Tinto. Trade Minister Simon Crean said a revolt by Rio Tinto shareholders effectively scuppered the deal with Chinalco, suggesting it was "an eye-opener for the Chinese and their state-owned enterprises." While official Chinese media have put the deal's failure down to Australian "prejudice" and questioned Canberra's involvement in the decision, Crean said it had nothing to do with the government. He said it showed shareholders had real power and the sooner Chinese entities with only one shareholder -- the government in Beijing -- understood the fact, they would be better equipped to deal with the Australian market. "These are issues that are not just questions of national interest and foreign investment review board considerations (by government), they also involve important considerations by shareholders," he told reporters. "I actually think it's going to be an important learning curve for China." Rio Tinto earlier this month snubbed an offer from Chinalco, opting instead to reduce its debts through a rights issue and an iron ore joint venture in Western Australia with former rival BHP Billiton. Rio needed shareholder approval to finalise its deal with Chinalco, which was announced in February. But the stockholders expressed anger that the miner failed to consult them before cutting a deal with Chinalco and argued that a recovery in commodity prices since February meant that the arrangement now offered poor value. Beijing this week said it may undertake an anti-monopoly review on the BHP-Rio joint venture because Chinese iron ore buyers were concerned it would impact on global supply of the commodity. Crean dismissed the suggestion, saying the two companies were simply sharing infrastructure in their West Australian iron ore mines. "It's important to understand that the proposal that Rio and BHP have entered is to share facilities and to try and get efficiency and therefore costs down from those shared facilities," he said. "They will still operate as separate marketing arms -- they will therefore be competitors and so there won't be any lessening of competition." Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Global Trade News
Britain seeks to become world's 'digital capital'London (AFP) June 16, 2009 Britain declared a goal to become the world's "digital capital" on Tuesday by building cutting-edge broadband, telecoms and media infrastructure to cement its role as a "global economic powerhouse". Prime Minister Gordon Brown compared the digital revolution to the 19th century construction of roads and railways which laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook