Global miner Rio Tinto is negotiating with one of two major shareholders in Riversdale Mining to secure a majority stake in the Africa-focused miner in a last-ditch bid to save its A$3.9 billion ($4 billion) takeover offer. The offer, announced in December, was conditional on at least 50 percent acceptances, but has so far secured only about 41 percent in Rio Tinto's third major deal attempt since its badly timed $40 billion takeover of Alcan in 2007. Rio Tinto's lawyer said in a letter released to the Australian stock exchange on Tuesday that Rio "genuinely believes that an outcome of those discussions is likely to emerge during the course of this morning".
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