Rio Tinto Aims to Return Cash to Holders Through Further Buybacks
September 19 2018 - 8:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--Rio Tinto (RIO) unveiled plans to buy back
a swath of its Australia-listed shares before the end of the year
as part of its move to return about $3.2 billion in proceeds from
the sale of coal assets to its shareholders.
The global mining company said Thursday it was targeting the
purchase of up to 41.2 million Rio Tinto Ltd. shares in 2018
through an off-market program valued at roughly $1.9 billion. The
timing and maximum price of the latest round of buybacks will be
announced following a tender process set to complete by
mid-November.
It comes on top of an ongoing program to buy back London-listed
Rio Tinto PLC shares, where the company said it has A$1.7 billion
still to repurchase by no later than Feb. 27.
The cash comes from the sale of the company's Hail Creek and
Valeria coal operations, and Winchester South and Kestrel mines.
The agreed sale of its Aluminium Dunkerque smelter in northern
France for $500 million is yet to be completed, and Rio Tinto said
it expects to announce plans for returning that money to
shareholders when it releases its full-year results.
The world's second-biggest miner by market value, behind BHP
Billiton Ltd. (BHP), recorded a profit of $4.38 billion for the six
months through June, its most profitable half since 2014 and up
from $3.31 billion a year earlier. Management in August pledged to
hand back about $4 billion after taxes to shareholders, but had yet
to decide on the timing and method.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2018 19:55 ET (23:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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