join the dots

After this I will go and find something useful to do (altho it is 40 degrees outside!!)......but this, as others have noted, is a fascinating story.


Chinalco invests $1 billion to take 49% stake in Yunnan Copper

Singapore (Platts)--1Nov2007

Aluminum Corp of China, also known as Chinalco, the nation's largest
aluminium producer, has acquired 49% of Yunnan Copper Industry, the country's
third largest copper producer, by paying Yuan 7.5 billion ($1 billion), the
China Daily reported Thursday.
Chinalco is the parent of publicly traded Aluminum Corporation of China
Limited, also known as Chalco.
The rest of Yunnan Copper will continue to be with the state-owned
assets supervision and administration commission of Yunnan Province, which
sold the stake.
Chinalco and the Yunnan provincial government inked the all-cash deal -
the biggest acquisition in the country's metal industry this year - on Tuesday
in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the copper
company is headquartered.
Under the agreement, Chinalco will invest an additional Yuan 2
billion for a copper processing unit in the province.
"The newly restructured company aims to achieve an annual revenue of over
hundreds of billions of yuan by 2012," Zou Shaolu, president of Yunnan Copper
Industry (Group), said.
"The stake purchase will be Chinalco's biggest investment deal this year.
We will also explore other domestic copper enterprises," Xiao Yaqing,
president of Chinalco said.
The deal with Yunnan Copper comes after Chinalco's $860 million takeover
of Peru Copper earlier this year. The aluminium major has accelerated its
entry into the copper business in 2007 and has earmarked Yuan 30 billion to
fund its expansion into copper production."