Rio Tinto is strongly defending its dual listing as an activist shareholder attempts to push the board to follow industry peer BHP in dropping its London listing in favour of the ASX.
Rio Tinto is strongly defending its dual listing as an activist shareholder attempts to push the board to follow industry peer BHP in dropping its London listing in favour of the ASX.
Costs, value and tax are among the reasons Rio Tinto shareholder Palliser Capital lobbed a resolution in a bid to scrap the company's London Stock Exchange listing and instead solely trade on the Australian Securities Exchange, alike miner BHP.
London hedge fund Palliser alleged Rio’s dual-structure had eroded $US50 billion worth of value, among other assertions, which the iron ore and lithium miner has refuted. Other shareholders Glass Lewis and ISS are also in favour of a single listing.
Rio's board is unanimously recommending shareholders vote against the resolution to abandon the London listing ahead of its annual general meeting.
The miner labeled the $US50 billion value destructive claim as “both unfounded and misleading”, in its statement to shareholders today on the ASX.
Rio said it had already conducted a “robust and comprehensive” review of a unification with five external advisers, maintaining its position on its dual listing
The company rubbished a comparison to BHP’s decision to drop its London listing, saying likening the two unique structures was “overly simplistic and misleading”.
The Big Australian consolidated to a single ASX listing in early 2022 in a move BHP described as enabling a simpler and more agile corporate structure.
Compared to BHP’s former dual-listing structure, Rio said it had a materially different geographic asset mix, growth outlook and tax profile, and a far greater proportion of the shares held through the plc company that would need to be acquired.
Further, the miner said it has met with Palliser seven times across 2024 and this year, including its chair Dominic Barton, chief executive Jakob Stausholm and chief financial officer Peter Cunningham. It said it has also engaged widely with other shareholders.
Palliser called on Rio to abandon its London listing and focus on unifying its corporate structure in Australia late last year.
On the ASX, Rio Tinto shares closed down slightly 0.69 per cent to $118.70 apiece.
