Chinalco on the lookout for acquisitions

Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) plans to spend US$2.8-4.2 billion on acquisitions this year, the South China Morning Post reported. Chinalco President Xiao Yaqing did not name specific acquisition targets but said non-ferrous metals would be a major focus. The company already made a joint US$14.5 billion investment in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto earlier this year with US firm Alcoa to try to stave off a takeover attempt by BHP Billiton. The buy-in was the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese firm. Xiao said China’s central government should release more guidelines on potential political and legal risks of doing business in different countries, and that Chinalco had to be more open in order to learn from other international and domestic companies.