this, plus outside an Australian co, no way Australia would ever let those iron ore assets owned by a foreign co. So really the only option is BHP which is a bit bigger, to takeover RIO. No other miner has the market cap anyway, unless China or ME came in which FIRB would block (rightly so).
BHP tried in 2008 to take RIO, but GFC, chinalco tried to block too with a blocking stake bought. Europe also had its issues.
But I’d love to see a merged BHP and RIO. Alot of synergies via WA iron ore and escondidia. Plus removes a lot of corporate overheads. It would be a true monopoly of iron ore, plus a global force in copper. Divest out RIOs crappy assets and it’s a pure mega tier 1 miner. Kind of like what Exxon is in terms of O&G industry. Makes sense if the boards can ever agree on the terms of value for such a merger and regulators let it through. I’d say Australia would want it to bring back RIO jobs from UK to here. Plus the world has changed in terms of geo politics and mega companies since 2008.
I own large holdings in both.
RIO Price at posting:
$103.55 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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