Tonight’s decision by BHP on whether to press the go button on a £61bn takeover of Rio Tinto is not just a big event for these two monsters of the mining industry.
It’s also a big “who-runs-the-world?” moment.
This takeover contest may no longer be decided in a conventional way by the shareholders of the two companies and competition regulators in assorted jurisdictions.
The reason is that on Friday the state-owned Chinese mining and metals group, Chinalco, snapped up 8% of Rio through a daring stock-market raid. And it exercises control over 9% of Rio, through a partnership with Alcoa of the US.
This was more than £6bn of Chinese government money saying no to the BHP deal.
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