Rio Tinto offers Tata Steel partnership in Mozambique

As the $44 billion Rio Tinto braces itself for a gruelling battle against an Indian consortium — International Coal Ventures Ltd — weighing a counter bid for Riversdale Mining Ltd, the Anglo-Australian mining giant has shifted to proactive mode, extending its hand for a partnership with Tata Steel Ltd to develop Riversdale’s Mozambique coal mines.

This should assuage worries at Tata Steel, which paid $88.2 million to Sydney-based Riversdale in November 2009, to jointly mine coking coal to feed its subsidiary Corus’ steel-making facilities in the UK and Europe.

The Benga project has coal reserves of 502 million tonne, according to Tata Steel, calling it “one of the most significant coal deposits outside Australia”.

In an emailed statement, Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, told DNA that it was “happy with the prospect of working with Tata at Benga”.

Tata Steel will retain its 35% stake in the Mozambique project in Africa, besides the right to buy 40% of the produce even if it sells its 24% stake in Australian mining company Riversdale Mining Ltd, which accepted Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd’s $3.91 billion takeover offer.

To a question whether Tata Steel could retain its 35% stake in the Benga project even if the company sells its equity in Riversdale, a spokesperson for Rio said: “Yes. Rio Tinto’s current offer is for the shares in Riversdale. If Tata chooses to sell its Riversdale shares to Rio Tinto it would retain its direct ownership of and offtake rights from the Benga project.”

Koushik Chatterjee, group CFO, Tata Steel, declined to comment, saying the company has “nothing to add beyond our holding statement of Thursday night”.

In a statement issued to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said that it would “evaluate the takeover bid in the context of other alternatives available to Tata Steel”.

It didn’t say what the other alternatives were, as a spokesperson declined to comment.

Analysts, though, say it is unlikely the company will get into a bidding war with Rio Tinto.

“I think Rio buying a company in which Tata Steel invested a few years back shows that Tata made a good investment. I would be surprised if they get into a bidding war as the development is more complementary as a miner is buying the company,” said Arvind Mahajan, executive director at KPMG.

An email sent to Riversdale spokesperson remained unanswered.

Mahajan also said that this development shows another way for Indian companies to secure resources without getting full control of the company.

Riversdale and Tata Steel formed a special joint venture vehicle in which the Indian company picked up a 35% stake and also the right to buy 40% coking coal produced. Both companies would be investing $270 million (excluding working capital) in the phase I of the project, which would see 5.3 million tonnes per annum of coking coal being produced by the end of 2011, according to Tata Steel.

Both Riversdale and Tata Steel have outlined plans to increase coal production rise to 20 million tonnes per annum, under phase II, by the end of 2014.

Rio Tinto maintained that its decision to buy Riverside should not change any of the project plans outlined earlier, with the company spokesperson saying: “Phase 2 is an expansion of Benga, not a trigger for a change in its ownership structure. We are happy with the prospect of working with Tata at Benga and have decades of experience of successfully managing such joint venture operations”.

Tata Steel shares gained 1.78% to close at Rs673.35 at the Bombay Stock Exchange with the BSE 30-stock ending the day at 0.45% higher at Rs20,073.66.