Rio Tinto rejects BHP Billiton's pre-conditional offer

6 February 2008

The Boards of Rio Tinto have given careful consideration to BHP Billiton’s pre-conditional offers to acquire the whole of the issued share capital of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited. Under this proposal each Rio Tinto share would be exchanged for 3.4 BHP Billiton shares.

The Boards have concluded that the pre-conditional offers significantly undervalue Rio Tinto. Accordingly the Boards have unanimously rejected BHP Billiton’s pre-conditional offers as not being in the best interests of shareholders.

Rio Tinto’s Chairman, Paul Skinner said: “BHP Billiton’s offers, while improved, still fail to recognise the underlying value of Rio Tinto’s quality assets and prospects. Our plans are unchanged, and will remain so unless a proposal is made that fully reflects the value of Rio Tinto. Accordingly we are forging ahead with our strategy of operating and developing large scale, long life, low cost assets to generate significant value for shareholders”.

Rio Tinto’s chief executive officer Tom Albanese said: “Rio Tinto has an exceptional portfolio of assets and significant stand alone growth opportunities, particularly in iron ore, copper and aluminium. These assets and opportunities, combined with the company’s strong track record for value delivery, project execution and successful exploration means Rio Tinto is very well positioned to take advantage of strong global markets and the growth in the resources industry, maximising value for shareholders.”