Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation have gotten the go-ahead to mop up all the shares in Coal & Allied Industries Limited
(ASX:CNA) that they do not already own.
The Foreign Investment Review Board has given the green light for the deal, freeing up the companies to lodge an application for a meeting at which Coal and Allied shareholders can consider the proposal before the end of 2011.
Rio Tinto currently has a 75.7 per cent stake in Coal and Allied. Mitsubishi holds a 10.2 per cent stake.
Both companies are offering Coal and Allied shareholders $125 per share, valuing the coal miner at around $10.8 billion.
Yesterday shares in Coal and Allied closed 0.02 per cent higher at $123.32. Shares in Rio fell 4.05 per cent to $59.30.
In the first half of its 2011 financial year Rio Tinto posted a net profit of $7.5 billion.
