Sam Walsh, Chief Executive Officer for mining giant Rio Tinto/AFP
October 7- Shares in Rio Tinto rallied here on Tuesday after the Anglo-Australian miner revealed it had rejected a merger bid from Swiss rival Glencore earlier this year.
The group’s share price jumped 5.71 percent to 3,168 pence in morning deals on London’s FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.61 percent at 6,523.01 points.
Rio Tinto said in a statement Glencore had approached it in July 2014 about a merger, but it rejected the approach in early August.
The group also confirmed there were no ongoing talks with Glencore about such a bid, which would have created the world’s biggest mining firm worth an estimated US$160 billion.
The news came after a Bloomberg report Monday that Glencore had approached Rio shareholder Chinalco, China’s largest alumina producer, about whether it would be interested in a possible deal.
Rio Tinto is the world’s second biggest miner and has a market capitalisation of Aus$107.7 billion (US$94.4 billon).
Swiss commodities trader Glencore became the world’s fourth biggest commodities company after merging with resources giant Xstrata in May 2013.
