So farewell, then, Rio/Chinalco. Few tears will be shed for the demise of this “pioneering strategic partnership”.

The venerable Anglo-Australian miner needed almost $20bn to pay off debt due this year and next. The thrusting Chinese metals group would provide it – but in exchange would enmesh itself in almost every tier of Rio’s business, and take nearly a fifth of the shares.

Both sets of Rio Tinto shareholders instinctively flinched. Australians suspected that regulators would demand big concessions. UK shareholders balked at being denied the chance to take part.

But as time went on, both could see that this was a deal struck by a damaged management team at Rio’s darkest hour, with commodity prices languishing, credit markets largely unavailable and asset sales faltering.

As Rio’s shares touched the conversion price of the first tranche of the convertible debt, the writing was on the wall for China’s largest outbound investment. By last week, when Rio was announcing iron ore price settlements with every nation bar the Chinese, it was finished.

Plan B, at last, is becoming Plan A. Some combination of rights issue and cash injection from BHP Billiton was always a better solution.

The future of Rio chief Tom Albanese, co-architect of the Chinalco deal with ex-chairman Paul Skinner, looks gloomy. The $195m break fee was a reasonable price for renting China Inc’s balance sheet, but the damage to Rio in China is incalculable.

Having knocked back a generous offer from BHP Billiton when metals prices and markets were through the roof, Mr Albanese and new chairman Jan du Plessis are back at the negotiating table with BHP’s Marius Kloppers and Don Argus. BHP, as it did when it pulled its takeover bid last November, holds all the cards.

BACKGROUND NEWS

Chinalco is set to walk away from a $19.5bn deal with Rio Tinto following weeks of wrangling over the terms of the transaction in a dramatic U-turn that will shock the market.

A statement could be issued at 8pm London time on Thursday, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Chinese state-owned group could not reach agreement about a $7.2bn convertible bond that was a key part of the proposed deal.

The terms of the convertible were pitched at a significant premium to Rio’s share price in February when the deal has announced. That premium has now shrunk.

To e-mail the Lex team confidentially click here
OR
To post public comments click here

The Lex column is now on Twitter. To receive our daily line-up and links to Lex notes via Twitter, click here

_________________________________________

Lex is the FT’s agenda-setting column, giving an authoritative view on corporate and financial matters. It is also one of the few parts of FT.com available only to Premium subscribers. This article is provided for free as an example. A Premium subscription gives you unlimited access to all FT content, including all Lex articles and the FT mobile Newsreader.

Subscribe now

If you have questions or comments, please e-mail help@ft.com or call:

US and Canada: +1 800 628 8088
Asia: +852 2905 5555
UK, Europe and rest of the world: +44 (0)20 7775 6248

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Reuse this content (opens in new window) CommentsJump to comments section

Follow the topics in this article

Comments

Comments have not been enabled for this article.