Miner Rio Tinto boosts shares with buy-back
SHARES in miner Rio Tinto were up by 1.83 per cent yesterday after the group confirmed that it is aiming to complete a $2bn (£1.33bn) share buy-back by the end of December 2015.
The company announced the buy-back in February, and in an update to the market said that any shares bought back between yesterday and 30 June would be handled by an independent third party, which will make its trading decisions “independently of, and uninfluenced by, Rio Tinto”.
The news follows a trading update on Tuesday which showed bad weather had impacted iron ore shipments.
Analysts at Barclays noted yesterday that Rio Tinto had endured a “seasonally soft” first quarter, and also warned “the implications for iron ore pricing over the balance of the year are not especially favourable”.