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Rio Tinto seeking to buy back 2.9 bln USD bonds

Xinhua, June 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The world's second largest miner Rio Tinto has announced its second large-scale debt buyback scheme, taking advantage of a recent recovery in industrial commodities.

Rio on Wednesday announced it was seeking to buy back 2.9 billion U.S. dollars of its bonds due in 2018 as it used its strong liquidity position to reduce gross debt.

"Today's announcement is part of the Rio Tinto Group's ongoing capital management and follows the successful completion of cash tender offers launched in April," the company said in a statement to the ASX.

Rio, which reported a 866 million-U.S.-dollar loss in 2015, has been making sharp cuts to its operational costs and capital expenditure in a bid to free up cash as the downturn in the commodities cycle continues.

However the bump in commodity prices is allowing indebted miners to buy back debt on the cheap when the bond market is giving little yield for investors. In April the giant bought back 1.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of corporate debt.

Rio's net debt stood at 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in the 2015 reporting period. Endit