Rio Tinto's “pioneering strategic partnership” with Chinalco was junked after events overtook it. The company's Plan B could, and probably should, go the same way – in its current form, at least.
News that Australia's competition authority wants more time to chew over Rio's iron ore production joint venture with BHP Billiton is ominous. At 119 calendar days and counting, the Australian watchdog has already taken longer in its current deliberations than the 116 days it took to wave through the entire (failed) acquisition of Rio by BHP in 2008. It is not the only regulator sharpening its pencil. The EU has no fixed timeframe to consider what steelmakers are describing as an effective duopoly in seaborne iron ore between the Anglo-Australian miners and Vale of Brazil. Article 2 of China's Anti-Monopoly Law, meanwhile, permits remedies should any transaction “have a restrictive effect on competition on the domestic market of the PRC”.
# 反垄断法第一章第二条