Rio helped by sale of Alcan
MINING giant Rio Tinto said yesterday it had disposed of $7bn (£4.3bn) of assets over the past 18 months, as it strives to pay off its debt mountain.
The news came a day after it sold its Alcan Composites arm, which makes specialist materials, to Swiss group Schweiter Technologies for $349m.
Rio bought the Canadian aluminium maker Alcan at the top of the market in 2007 for £38bn, saddling the miner with a huge debt pile. It said at the time it intended to dispose of the non-core operations of Alcan, but the planned sale was scuppered by the downturn, which saw asset values plummet.
Last month, Rio confirmed it had a $2bn offer for a large slab of Alcan’s packaging unit, including its pharmaceuticals, tobacco, and European and Asian food arms. It has already sold off the food packaging division of Alcan to Bemis for $1.2bn.
“In the last three months we have made significant inroads into divesting the downstream assets acquired with Alcan, including offers or agreed sales for the majority of Alcan Packaging and Cable,” Rio’s finance director Guy Elliott said.
The sale to Schweiter will close by the end of the year, Rio said, but is subject to regulatory approvals and consultations with employees.