Chinalco Will Meet Australian Regulator Today on Rio Deal

March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Aluminum Corp. of China, seeking approval for its agreed $19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto Group, will meet with an Australian regulator today. “We hope we can have a constructive discussion with Foreign Investment Review Board officials with respect to this transaction,” Chairman Xiong Weiping said at a press conference in Sydney today through a translator. Chinalco, as the Beijing based company is known, won’t achieve “any control in any sense” of Rio Tinto, he said. State-owned Chinalco on Feb. 12 agreed to acquire stakes in Rio projects, including iron ore and copper mines in Australia and Chile, for $12.3 billion and buy $7.2 billion of convertible bonds. Shareholders are “concerned” about the investment, the Australian Shareholders Association has said. The investments face scrutiny by Australia’s Treasurer Wayne Swan, who can reject the deals on national interest grounds. The deal will help Australia recover from the effects of the global recession, Xiong said today.