Australia's ACCC Won't Oppose Chinalco's Rio Tinto Investment

MELBOURNE -(Dow Jones)- The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said Wednesday it won't oppose the US$19.5 billion investment by Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, in Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP). The deal will see Chinalco take stakes of between 15% and 50% in a suite of Rio Tinto's assets and be issued with convertible bonds that could see its holding in the group rise to 18%. The ACCC said the deal was unlikely to lessen competition substantially and that Rio Tinto and Chinalco would be unlikely to be able to push down iron ore prices. "The ACCC concluded that Chinalco and Rio Tinto would be unlikely to have the ability to unilaterally decrease global iron ore prices below competitive levels," the antitrust regulator said in a statement.