Official: BHP takeover of Rio should be reviewed

A senior adviser to the State Council and National People’s Congress said BHP Billiton’s US$96 billion hostile takeover bid for Rio Tinto would harm China and should be reviewed under China’s new anti-monopoly law, Bloomberg reported, citing a report in Australian paper The Age. Speaking in Melbourne, Wang Xiaoye also urged European regulators to reject the deal. The European Commission has set a January 15 deadline for its review of the deal. Wang said China’s Ministry of Commerce had received complaints about the proposed takeover, but that it has no regulatory jurisdiction in this case.