BHP abandons $90 billion bid for Rio Tinto

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-25 17:27

CANBERRA -- The world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, announced Tuesday night that a takeover of Rio Tinto no longer stacked up for shareholders given the crash in global markets.

BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers said BHP Billiton has decided to abandon its 90 billion-dollar (57 billion U.S. dollars) bid for arch-rival Rio Tinto as shareholder were no longer interested in the bid.

The death of the biggest proposed mining takeover offer on record came as a global credit crisis increases the cost and reduces the availability of capital, slowing developed economies and reducing their need for raw commodities, he said in a statement.

Kloppers said recent global events and related falls in commodity prices have altered the "risk dimensions" of the deal.

"BHP Billiton is very focused on balance sheet strength. Accordingly, the greater debt exposure of the combination plus the difficulty of divesting assets have increased the risks to shareholder value to an unacceptable level," Kloppers added.

Rio Tinto so far is yet to make a substantive comment. "We've noted the statement. We hope to have a full response a little later," Rio Tinto spokeswoman Amanda Buckley said.