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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (17689)	4/14/2008 10:26:32 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193982

Australia would weigh national interest in any major Chinese purchase of BHP Billiton stock mineweb.co.za Newspaper reports that Chinese steelmakers may take an influential shareholding in BHP Billiton have prompted Australia’s Treasurer to say the government would look closely at any such stake. Author: James Regan Posted: Thursday , 10 Apr 2008 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will look closely at any moves by Chinese entities to buy shares in mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd to make sure its national interests were not at risk, Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Thursday. BHP said in a statement earlier it knew of no such plans, after The Australian newspaper reported that Beijing was in the early stages of plans to seek more than 9 percent of BHP and gain some influence in the miner's hostile takeover offer for rival Rio Tinto Ltd/Plc "I don't comment on any proposed takeover or forecast takeover of any particular entity," Swan told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. "(But) you can be in no doubt that we will be taking decisions absolutely in the national interest on these questions." BHP was forced to publicly respond on Thursday to Australian stock exchange regulators who wanted to know if the company was aware of any Chinese moves to buy its shares. BHP stock rose almost 4 percent in a falling Australian market on Wednesday. A BHP spokeswoman declined further comment on the matter. BHP shares were up 0.2 percent at A$42 late on Thursday, in a market down 1.25 percent. Speculation has swirled in Australia that Beijing was bent on using equity stakes to keep BHP and Rio apart, ever since state aluminium producer Chinalco acquired 9 percent of Rio for $14 billion in early February. Public comments by groups representing steel makers and other industrial sectors in China opposing a BHP-Rio tie-up have served only to fan the flames. Chinese steelmakers in particular, fear a BHP/Rio merger would carry too much clout in negotiating prices of raw materials key to China's rapid industrialisation. Chinalco has insisted it has no plans to launch a takeover of its own for Rio, but still notified the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board of its purchase. The board has to approve foreign entities' purchases of stakes of over 15 percent in Australian firms. Swan has said he would pay closer attention to what he deems strategic investments, even those below the 15 percent threshold. Australia, rich with minerals across thousands of kilometres of sparsely inhabited outback, has long resisted the prospect of being only a quarry for raw materials to fuel rapid Asian industrial expansion, despite counting iron ore and coal as its top generators of foreign revenue. It has been happy to allow smaller mining companies to fall into foreign hands, but has been protective of its few corporate giants, blocking a takeover of oil company Woodside Petroleum Ltd by Royal Dutch Shell L in 2000, citing national interests. BHP was only granted approval to merge with South Africa's Billiton after a year, after giving assurances it would keep its headquarters and a stock listing in Australia. (Editing by Jonathan Standing & Editing by Ian Geoghegan)