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Aus miner soars on China offer but Greens oppose takeover
Sydney (AFP) Feb 17, 2009 Australian miner OZ Minerals soared 17 percent Tuesday after a Chinese takeover offer but the Australian Greens party said the country's resource firms should not be sold to a "dictatorship". The 2.6 billion dollar (1.7 billion US) offer from Chinese firm Minmetals sent OZ Minerals up 9.5 cents to 64.5 cents when the stock resumed trading Tuesday, as investors welcomed the bid for the debt-laden miner. But with the offer coming hot on the heels of Chinalco's proposed 19.5 billion US dollar investment in Rio Tinto, Greens senator Bob Brown issued a hands off warning to Chinese firms wanting to buy Australian resources firms. "There is no way the communist autocrats in Beijing would allow an Australian company to buy control of an equivalent Chinese resource," Brown told reporters. "Both Rio Tinto and OZ Minerals are floundering but the Australian mineral resources they control will not disappear if these companies do. "It is hazardous for our open and democratic nation to have the Beijing dictatorship, which forcefully suppresses democracies, take control of these companies and our resources." Brown does not have the power to block either bid but with minor parties including the Greens holding the balance of power in parliament's Senate, the centre-left Labor government will not want to put him offside. Treasurer Wayne Swan was non-committal on the Rio and OZ Minerals bids, which are widely seen as an attempt by Beijing to take direct control of the resources that have fuelled China's recent growth. "I'm not making any comment on those foreign investment proposals which are before the foreign investment review board," Swan told reporters. "I will take the ultimate decision on those proposals. "I judge them, in the national interest, and I will do so on this occasion." Related Links The Economy
Qantas slashes China, India routes
Melbourne (AFP) Feb 17, 2009Australian carrier Qantas announced cuts to "underperforming" routes to China and India on Tuesday, and said it was handing its domestic New Zealand services to discount offshoot Jetstar. |
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