Rio Tinto Spins Off Alcan Composites for $349 Million (RTP)

9/22/2009-In an effort to reduce debt, Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) announced that it is selling its building materials manufacturer Alcan Composites to Switzerland-based machinery manufacturer Schweiter Technologies in a deal valued at approximately $349 million. The transaction is expected to close by the year's end. Alcan Composites has 16 factories in Switzerland, Germany, United States, South America, China and India. Rio has been looking to divest the Alcan engineering assets since its 2007 $37 billion acquisition of the company, which mounted massive amounts of debt on the company, a burden that only worsened through the credit crunch. "In the last three months, we have made significant inroads into divesting the downstream assets acquired with Alcan, including offers or agreed sales for the majority of Alcan Packaging & Cable," CFO Guy Elliot said.

Write to Chip Brian at cbrian@tradethetrend.com

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