By Patrick Cull
THE Alcan smelter in the Coega Industrial Development Zone will go ahead despite the R266,7-billion bid for the Canadian company by Rio Tinto, Alcan Global public affairs director Robert Valdmanis saying yesterday that it would be “business as usual”.
Anglo-Australian group Rio Tinto yesterday said it was offering to buy Alcan, launching a friendly offer to counter a hostile bid for the Canadian aluminium company by United States giant Alcoa.
The Anglo-Australian miner said it was offering just over R700 a share for Alcan and said it was recommending the price to shareholders.
The bid exceeds Alcoa‘s R196- billion offer that Alcan‘s board roundly rejected in May, calling it inadequate.
Valdmanis said that what made Alcan so attractive was its “pipeline of projects – and Coega rates as the most attractive on that list”.
“We don‘t believe there will be any slowdown at all,” he said.
Referring to the R700-million contracts signed on Wednesday for engineering design work on the smelter at Coega, he said: “The commitment we made yesterday speaks as loudly today.”
Topped only by fellow Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto operates on all continents producing iron ore, aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy products including coal and uranium, gold and industrial minerals.
Its planned acquisition of Canada-based Alcan, one of the biggest deals in mining history, would create the world‘s largest aluminium producer. – Additional reporting from AFP