London in November is cold and rainy, sunny, and the maximum daily temperature can reach more than ten degrees, which is a good weather. {(((〔版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版版�

"I hate London's cloudy and tide weather. It makes me feel like I smell bad from the inside out!" Rio Tinto Group President Kenan Westbrook muttered at the gloomy sky outside and the drizzle of rain. Although three days ago, the European Commission officially rejected BHP Billiton's application to acquire Rio Tinto Group, everyone from Rio Tinto Group was relieved, but the bad international iron ore market situation still made Westbrook feel as if the weather in London was in a state of sunny days.

2008 was an extremely bad and unbearable year for Westbrook. First, BHP Group launched an acquisition from Rio Tinto. Although Rio Tinto repeatedly rejected BHP Group's request, BHP Group was as entangled as the legendary Chinese dog skin plaster, and repeatedly proposed new acquisition conditions. In order to avoid the fate of Rio Tinto Group's acquisition, Westbrook racked his brains and occupied a lot of his energy and time.

The iron ore price negotiations in 2008 were even more twists and turns. The failure of the three East Asian countries made the iron ore price negotiations delayed reaching an agreement, which also affected the performance of Rio Tinto Group. Until the end, it made Brazilian Vale get a bargain and first reached an agreement with China. Although Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Group have been fighting repeatedly, they are unable to make up for the situation and can only grit their teeth and accept this result.

This is not the worst. Due to the vigorous rectification of the steel industry, sorting out the qualifications of iron ore import enterprises, eliminating backward steel production capacity, and the establishment of Huasheng Group, the import of iron ore enterprises in China that did not sign iron ore agreements for iron ore, and the influence of many factors such as the increasing intensity of the US subprime mortgage crisis and the unpromising prospects of the world economic development, the demand for iron ore by global steel companies has declined significantly, which has caused a sharp decline in the market price of iron ore, and even an inverted situation with the price of Changcheng ore that has never been seen in recent years. This has caused the performance of global iron ore production companies, including the three major mining companies, to decline significantly.

However, BHP Billiton Group has signed a large iron ore sales order with Heiburg Steel Group this year, and Brazilian Vale has a large iron ore sales order with Huasheng Group, but Rio Tinto Group is empty-handed, which puts great pressure on Westbrook on the company's board of directors.

The sharp decline in performance has naturally caused Rio Tinto Group's performance in the UK and Australian stock markets to be extremely poor, and its stock price has fallen significantly, but even so, he still has to focus a considerable amount of his energy on dealing with BHP Billiton's acquisition. Although the European Commission rejected BHP Billiton's acquisition application for Rio Tinto Group, it cannot be said that this matter has been settled. As far as he knows, BHP is still planning the next round of acquisitions. Although the total assets involved in this acquisition have been reduced to only $60 to 70 billion compared with the beginning of the year, which is almost halfway.

Westbrook believes that the BHP Billiton Group's peers were in a dilemma at this time and had to grit their teeth and continue. Otherwise, over the years, their application to acquire Rio Tinto Group could be approved by various governments, and all the efforts they made would be vain, and the losses would be hundreds of millions of dollars! Who will bear the responsibility for such a huge loss?

"These bastards have reached this point and don't know how to stop!" Westbrook cursed hatefully. They didn't even look at it. Even the merger of Brazil mm and Australia's Haiping Mining Company has not made any substantial progress. The relevant departments of the Australian government have not yet approved it. BHP Billiton's acquisition of Rio Tinto Group is undoubtedly larger in assets and has greater influence. How could it be easily approved by the European Commission?

Westbrook was so angry that his teeth were itchy about the management of BHP Billiton. If they hadn't jumped out and insisted on acquiring Rio Tinto Group, how could Rio Tinto Group's performance be so bleak this year? How could it make Brazil's Vale become the biggest profiter!

"President, Chairman **Vicci's phone number!" said the personal female secretary to him softly, "I say there is a major matter to notify you."

"Hmm?" Westbrook frowned slightly, took the phone handed over by the female secretary and said, "Chairman, what's going on?"

Wilt **Vic was sitting in the headquarters building of Rio Tinto Group in Melbourne, looking at the blazing sun outside the house, and chuckled: "Kennan, telling you a message may make you feel better. I just received a call from the chairman of Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd., saying that they are very interested in participating in shares and hope to increase the shareholding ratio of Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. in our company. I have promised him that he will send someone to negotiate with us as soon as possible in the near future." Westbrook was stunned and was immediately overjoyed. This is the long drought that has been sweet and rainy. If Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. intends to increase its shareholding ratio in Rio Tinto Group, this will undoubtedly be better for Rio Tinto Group, which is already in trouble.

"How much do they want to take?" Westbrook asked.

"At least ten percent! That is, the total holdings reached 12.4%. "**Vicci said, "I really envy them. I have seen the performance of Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. last year, and the profit was only more than 20 million US dollars. If it has always been this level, this investment will be enough for them to earn for hundreds of years."

"Haha, behind Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. is the Huaxia Treasury! Tens of billions of dollars are a huge sum of money for a company, but for a treasury of a major country with a GDP ranking among the world's top tier, it's nothing." Westbrook sneered, "However, do you think the Australian Investment Approval Committee can approve their approach?" Ten percent of Rio Tinto Group's shares, plus two percent of shares and twelve percent of shares that Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. originally held, can ensure that Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. becomes a member of the board of directors of Rio Tinto Group, and can even rank among the top three shareholders. As a state-owned enterprise in China, Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. will definitely cause other shareholders and some people in Australia to feel uneasy.

"It doesn't matter whether the Australian Investment Approval Committee approves it or not. What's important is that at this time, Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. is willing to participate in our Rio Tinto Group Company!" A laugh from **Vicci was heard on the phone.

Westbrook was stunned for a moment and couldn't help laughing. He was indeed thinking too much. Regardless of whether the Australian Investment Approval Committee finally approved the behavior of Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd., at least the news will be very beneficial to enhancing investors' confidence in Rio Tinto Group and changing Rio Tinto Group's current situation! Think about it, Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. is a large state-owned enterprise of Huaxia. As a shareholder, Rio Tinto Group Co., Ltd. can still not take advantage of China's iron ore trade? Those who are worried that Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. may seize power in the future. Those ordinary investors don't care about this. They only know that this will give Rio Tinto Group Co., Ltd. an advantage in iron ore trade with China. This is enough. Today, Huaxia is the largest customer in iron ore trade and can account for nearly half of the global iron ore overseas trade!

"Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. is discussing the investment with Rio Tinto Group?" Fang Mingyuan's eyebrows immediately frowned.

"Yes, although it has not been announced publicly, it is no secret in the upper class here." Angelina chuckled, "Ri Tinto Group's acquisition case has caused a sharp decline in performance this year. The shareholders' dissatisfaction with the management is about to explode publicly. Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. wants to invest in Rio Tinto Group. Such good news should not be faked." As long as someone who is interested in asking about Huaxia, he will definitely see some clues.

Fang Mingyuan cursed in his heart that Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. wanted to enter Rio Tinto Group Co., Ltd. in the beginning. With his strong intervention, he finally only took out US$2.4 billion to buy almost 2.2% of the shares. Their original plan was to use over 10 billion US dollars to acquire about 12% of the shares of Rio Tinto Group in the UK stock market. After almost a year, the value of these shares has dropped by one quarter, which means that they have lost 600 million US dollars!

As far as he knows, the European Commission rejected BHP Billiton's acquisition of Rio Tinto, and the condition was that BHP Billiton must divest its assets in iron ore and coal to acquire Rio Tinto. This condition is undoubtedly unacceptable to BHP Billiton. The current global economic situation is becoming clearer and clearer. The economic crisis can be said to be imminent. Global steel companies' demand for iron ore has also shrunk significantly, whether it is BHP Billiton or

Rio Tinto Group's stock price has declined significantly, and Rio Tinto Group still has tens of billions of dollars in debt. In this case, even if Fang Mingyuan didn't know the final result of this acquisition in his previous life, it can be seen that it is unlikely that BHP Billiton Group will forcibly continue to acquire Rio Tinto Group! The shareholders of BHP Billiton Group cannot bring heavy debts to the company before the large-scale economic crisis comes, so it is a matter of time before BHP Billiton Group gives up the acquisition.

Once BHP Billiton Group publicly announced that it would give up the acquisition, among the three major mining giants, Rio Tinto Group Group was heavily in debt when acquiring Canadian Aluminum Company, Rio Tinto Group's stock price would definitely plummet. Fang Mingyuan had long been concerned about Rio Tinto Group's shares. Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. suddenly participated in this time, which undoubtedly supported Rio Tinto Group's stock price. He didn't know if Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. did not see this and made a splash at this time and caused trouble for himself. And only the more severe the Rio Tinto Group's stock price fell, it would be easier to acquire Rio Tinto Group's shares in the market!

However, he could not force Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. to give up his shareholding. After the price of iron ore soared in recent years, the domestic emphasis on iron ore supply has reached a strategic level. Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd.'s participation in Rio Tinto Group Co., Ltd. can be said to have a political task to ensure that the domestic market has enough voice in the iron ore market. In this case, whether the loss in a short period of time is no longer within the scope of consideration. Moreover, more importantly, the actual controller of Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. does not belong to their side. When he forced Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. to give up the large-scale acquisition of Rio Tinto Group Co., Ltd., the other party was already quite dissatisfied. If he intervened now and did not allow Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. to intervene, and if he did this matter himself, he would probably have a big opinion. Although the Fang family did not expect them to help in many domestic affairs, they did not expect them to stand opposite sides.

Fang Mingyuan couldn't help but feel a headache. This is an opponent who is not afraid of a god-like or a teammate who is like a pig. It is not a good thing that Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. has mixed in at this time.

"Grandpa is awake, let's go now." Angelina took Fang Mingyuan's arm and said softly.

"Yes." Fang Mingyuan nodded. He could only put the matter of Huaxia Aluminum Co., Ltd. for the time being.

The two left the room and came to Old Welf's bedroom, and were walking in the same face with Philip George Ruger Anderson Welf.

"Dad, how is Grandpa's situation?" Angelina asked softly.

"I'm a little better than yesterday, but the doctor said I still need to rest for a while." Philip looked at Fang Mingyuan and said, "Fang, I'm waiting for you in the living room. If you have something to talk to you. Don't talk to the patriarch about those troublesome things."

"Ah? OK, I understand." Fang Mingyuan nodded. (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!