BHP Hasn’t Touched With Chalco On Rio

The widely concerned merger between BHP Billiton and Rio is currently in a standstill. Ian Ashby, president of BHP’s iron ore business, estimated the merger might move forwards by the end of this year, as it needs approvals from kinds of related government administrations especially those from the EU committee. Ashby also noted that BHP hasn’t touched with Chalco, the largest single shareholder in Rio. Chalco partnered with Alcoa in buying Rio’s 9% share Last month after BHP raised the formal merger proposal, causing unanimous objections from those organizations such as International Iron &Steel Institute, Japanese Iron &Steel Federation, European Iron &Steel Federation. Source from Rio explained the reason for rejecting BHP’s 147- billion-dollar proposal is just because of value, while warning that mining companies are facing the risk of being too large in size.