(Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto Group has rebuked a call from activist investor Palliser Capital UK Ltd. to unify its dual listing into an Australian-domiciled holding company, saying tax costs would amount to billions and there was nothing to gain.
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Palliser has been asking Rio to end its London listing since May, arguing unification could “unlock $28 billion of upside in the near term” for shareholders and that the current structure had cost investors $50 billion.
“The Board firmly rejects Palliser’s claim of $50 billion of lost value over the past 30 years, of which Palliser states $35.6 billion is attributable to structural impediments caused by the DLC structure,” Rio said. “Contrary to Palliser’s claims, unification is not a low-cost decision from a tax perspective.”
Glencore Plc, another mining giant, on Wednesday said it’s studying whether to move its primary listing away from London, as a flux of companies exit the UK capital in search of deeper liquidity and heftier valuations. BHP Group did so in 2022, while oil major Shell Plc has been considering a move to the US.
Rio’s board said it conducted an independent review of the listing structure last year, but failed to find any benefits. The company recommended shareholders vote against a Palliser motion to engage an independent firm to conduct another study.
Rio’s share register is far more weighted to London compared with BHP’s at the time. It has about three-quarters of its stock listed in the UK.
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