Rio Tinto’s bid for Turquoise Hill hits snags

Rio Tinto’s $3.3bn bid to purchase Turquoise Hill has suffered vital setbacks, after minority shareholders expressed opposition and Canadian monetary regulators raised issues.

The date for shareholders within the Canadian mining firm to vote on Rio’s provide has been postponed indefinitely whereas the monetary regulator in Quebec, Autorité des Marchés Financiers, examines the deal.

The regulator “considers the transaction as presently structured to lift public curiosity issues”, based on an announcement from Turquoise Hill.

The delay is a blow to Rio’s eight-month effort to solidify management over Oyu Tolgoi, the Mongolian copper mine that’s considered one of its most essential belongings. Rio already owns 51 per cent of Montreal-based Turquoise Hill, which in flip owns 66 per cent of Oyu Tolgoi.

In September Rio Tinto had provided C$43 per share to buy the remaining shares of Turquoise Hill it didn’t already personal. That supply was beneficial by Turquoise Hill’s board however opposed by its largest minority shareholders, Pentwater Capital and SailingStone.

After failing to safe sufficient votes to approve the transaction outright, Rio struck a particular settlement with Pentwater and Crusing Stone that enables them to register dissent, after which takes dissenting shares by means of a particular arbitration course of after the general transaction is full.

“Unsurprisingly, the Quebec regulator is taking a dim view of the facet deal achieved between Rio and two of TRQ’s bigger shareholders that might see these two shareholders receiving a lot increased payouts than different minorities,” mentioned Peter Mallin-Jones, analyst at Peel Hunt. “This implies that the Oyu Tolgoi cleaning soap opera has a number of extra twists to return,” he added.

A gathering for Turquoise Hill shareholders to vote on the transaction was initially scheduled for November 2, then rescheduled twice, earlier than being postponed indefinitely.

A particular committee of Turquoise Hill’s unbiased administrators had expressed “issues with respect to the differential therapy of the corporate’s minority shareholders” within the deal, based on an organization assertion on November 9.

For Rio Tinto, securing higher management over the Oyu Tolgoi mine is a strategic precedence, as the corporate works to broaden its manufacturing of metals akin to copper and lithium which might be crucial for the transition to low-carbon vitality.

Earlier this yr, Rio began to broaden the mine’s underground operations, which is able to considerably enhance copper output and in addition improve the undertaking’s capital wants.

Rio estimates Turquoise Hill will want an addition $3.6bn over the subsequent two years to help the enlargement. A few of that may have to be paid by shareholders.

As soon as the underground undertaking is full, Oyu Tolgoi might be one of many world’s largest copper mines, with manufacturing in its early years of about 500,000 tonnes per yr, simply as demand for the metallic will increase due to the vitality transition.