Glencore sweetens offer for Rio's thermal coal assets
Glencore has bumped up its offer for Rio Tinto's interest in Coal & Allied Industries (C&A) to $2.68bn in cash plus a coal price-linked royalty, from a previous offer of $2.55bn.
The company pointed out that its bid is at least $225m greater than Yancoal's proposal and that the full cash consideration is payable in full on completion, with no deferred payments.
"We believe the Glencore offer satisfies the criteria for a 'superior proposal': it delivers substantially greater value to Rio Tinto shareholders and low deal completion risk.
"Rio Tinto must provide Yancoal with the opportunity to present a counter offer. If any such counter offer is determined by the Rio Tinto board to be equally or no less favourable than the competing proposal, then Rio Tinto must accept the Yancoal counter offer."
Earlier this week, Rio Tinto rebuffed a counter-bid from Glencore and recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of a sale to Yancoal for $2.45bn.
At 1447 BST, Glencore shares were down 0.9% to 279.20p while Rio shares were up 0.6% to 3,057.50p.