The war one year between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto position may have been one winner who was actively engaged at Rio Tinto, the basic industry China. Main global consumer of ore of iron, coal coke, aluminum and copper, as flagship of the two anglo-australiens groups products, China has everything to gain from the failure of the main consolidation of the mining sector never attempted so far. Degradation of courses of stock of Rio Tinto ( 36,04 in two sessions in London), consequent to the failure of the proposed merger, could also provide a unique opportunity to Chinalco. Now, in February, shareholders (in the company of Alcoa) 9 of Rio Tinto to high price of $ 14 billion, Chinese State aluminum giant could quickly decide to wear this participation to 14.99, as it were entitled to Australian authorities.
It is not excluded that Chinalco attempts after this step, climb up to 49.99 of the shares in Rio Tinto. Some leaders of the Chinese alumineur would previously examine this hypothesis, unveiled Tuesday at the Reuters Lu Youqing, Vice-President and spokesperson of Chinalco. These comments caused a stir in Australia, very jealous of her mining jewels. To calm, the Chinese, shortly after, issued a short official press release stating that no decision had been taken at this stage.
The speculation is well underway
But the mischief was done. The speculation is well underway, as markets questioned the evolution of the management of the debt of Rio Tinto. Tuesday, the rating agency Moody's has placed $ 5 billion of its debt not guaranteed under surveillance for a possible degradation of its note. This approach corresponds to the judgment "that the average term of Rio Tinto performance will probably affected by negative conditions of the markets of the copper and aluminum as well as the challenge to certain operations in the red metal at the level of production and the quality of the ore".
Conversely, the same rating agency rebounded yesterday from negative to stable the perspective of non-guarantee of BHP Billiton ($9 billion) debt. Evidence of the extreme tension on the debt of Rio Tinto, his 5-year CDS flew Tuesday to 883,30 points, up 13 percent from the previous day. The $ 40 billion debt to acquire Alcan weighs more heavy than ever. For ING, after it had been reduced to around 39 billion end September; 9 billion of credits must be returned in October of next year.
Formally denying rumours of a possible appeal to the market, Paul Skinner, President of Rio Tinto which departs end of 2009, provided that his company is able to handle the situation without recourse. The company relies on its proven ability to generate new cash and promises to handle his future investment plan with a lot of flexibility. For the time being, the operators seem to be deaf ear stressing the difficulties encountered by Rio Tinto to sell non-strategic assets of Alcan, including packaging and inherited from Pechiney machined parts. Even on this very sensitive point, Paul Skinner wanted confident. But the words are no longer enough to reassure. The market demands of the facts. Quickly.
But market conditions continues to deteriorate recognizesProfitability of operations returned to 3It to the integration into a larger wholeImpressive figures which must be minimisedThis escalation of a new type is far from overEven if it is darker in the markets these days the anomaly should be noted6 the previous time they increased from 26New flexibility in the Caisse d'Epargne groupRegardless of the manner in which this growth was generatedThe sanction was immediate the action lost 5
