BHP CEO says Rio bid unaffected by market turmoil

CANBERRA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The chief executive of global miner BHP Billiton Ltd does not see the company's hostile, $122 billion bid for rival Rio Tinto Ltd being affected by global market turmoil. Marius Kloppers also told reporters at the launch of a clean-coal technology initiative in Australia on Friday that the firm was not changing its long-term commodity price outlook. The market turmoil has hurt commodity prices and the shares of mining firms, deepening the discount of Rio's shares to the offer of 3.4 BHP shares for each Rio share, though Kloppers said the benefits of the deal spoke for themselves. "It's a deal for all seasons," he said. "Look at the nature of our proposal, it is a relative transaction. Under any scenario you get the synergies and unique benefits that are possible through the combination of these two portfolios.""You get them when times are good, you get them when times are bad. And at difficult times like this -- and people value cost-savings, synergies, cash flow benefits and so on -- we view this transaction, if anything, as even more attractive under slightly more uncertain circumstances."Both BHP and Rio have benefited from surging global demand for minerals, particularly from China. BHP sees a merger as putting the companies in pole position to benefit from demand in China and other fast-growing Asian countries. Rio has rejected the bid as undervaluing its prospects, while Chinese steelmakers have voiced strong opposition on concerns that the deal would give the combined entity too much control over mineral supplies. The deal is currently under scrutiny by European Union, Australian and other regulators. (Reporting by Rob Taylor, writing by Jonathan Standing)