Sydney — Rio Tinto said on Monday that Swiss commodities giant Glencore has upped its offer for the firm’s Australian coal assets, raising the stakes in a bidding war with China-backed Yancoal. Rio, the world’s second-largest miner, said in January it was selling Coal & Allied to Yancoal Australia — majority-controlled by China’s Yanzhou Coal — for $2.45bn. But Glencore, which like Yancoal also operates numerous coal mines in Australia, offered $100m more for the assets in New South Wales state earlier in June. Rio last week said it still favoured Yancoal since the deal was expected to be completed faster due to greater funding and regulatory certainty, leading Glencore to deliver a fresh $2.675bn bid. "We believe the Glencore offer satisfies the criteria for a ‘superior proposal’ — it delivers substantially greater value to Rio Tinto shareholders and low deal completion risk," Glencore said in a statement. Rio said that if it decided Glencore’s new bid was better, Yancoal would hav...
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