BHP Billiton Following Procedure

　　BHP Billiton had agreed to follow the standard procedures laid down by the Competition Commission to secure the confidentiality of sensitive documents, the commission said. 　　JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- The agreement followed a week in which the commission served a summons on Billiton to elicit documents related to its investigation into the proposed merger between Billiton and Rio Tinto. 　　Billiton had offered to show the confidential documents to the commission but was not prepared to release them, or as a second option wanted the Competition Tribunal to make an order to protect the documents. In its founding affidavit, it said the documents were both irrelevant to the investigation and financially sensitive. 　　In response to the commission’s summons, Billiton applied for the matter to be heard by the tribunal, which is the judicial body. Billiton and the commission reached an agreement late on Thursday night, which obviated the need for a tribunal hearing. 　　The commission’s head of mergers and acquisitions, Tembinkosi Bonakele, said Billiton had agreed to follow the same procedure as any other company wishing to protect sensitive information. The commission’s investigation records could be both confidential and nonconfidential, and the sensitive Billiton documents would go into the confidential record. 　　Billiton launched a formal bid for Rio Tinto in February on the basis of 3.4 of its shares for every Rio Tinto share. The merged entity would be the biggest player in the global seaborne iron-ore market with a substantial presence in thermal coal and aluminium. 　　The merger is being scrutinised by competition authorities in the European Union, Australia and Canada.