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Allens principal adviser for Rio Tinto on strategic deal with Chinalco

2 March 2009

Allens Arthur Robinson (Allens) has acted as the lead legal adviser to Rio Tinto in the high profile negotiation and agreement of Rio Tinto's major strategic alliance transaction with Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), as announced on 12 February 2009.

The transaction will be made up of investment joint ventures in respect of certain individual Rio Tinto assets, as well as the issue of convertible bonds at parent company level, delivering a total investment by Chinalco of US$19.5 billion.

Allens advised on the complex matter across the full range of legal disciplines, covering in particular corporate, resources, M&A, tax and regulatory.

The deal required significant coordination and organisation, with a large number of jurisdictions involved and some unique requirements to the deal, including the fact that every single page of the key agreements – totalling over 600 pages – were required to be released into the public domain immediately after signing.

Commercial/Resources Partners Nic Tolé and Scott Langford led the team, alongside M&A Partner Richard Kriedemann, with a range of other Partners (including Cameron Rider, Steve Pemberton, and Michael Perez) also heavily involved.

With a large team operating out of the firm's Hong Kong office for nearly two months, Allens brought together specialists from all four Australian offices, as well as Jakarta, Beijing and Hong Kong.
'We had a large deal team including Rio Tinto personnel and corporate and financial advisers base themselves in our Hong Kong office, and our people there did a magnificent job accommodating us at very short notice,' said Mr Tolé and Mr Langford.

'This was a complex, high profile and intensive deal to work on, and we're really proud of the way our team responded.

'Allens has been acting for Rio Tinto for over 100 years and, in a high profile and significant matter such as this, it was good to be able to draw on experience and 'corporate knowledge' from throughout the firm to get the deal done in an extremely tough timeframe,' said Mr Langford and Mr Tolé.

Following the announcement of the transaction, Allens continues to work closely with Rio Tinto on a broad range of pre-completion matters for the transaction.

Ends

For further information, please contact:

• Jane FoleyCorporate Communications Coordinator, Melbourne
  Ph: +61 3 9613 8503
  Jane.Foley@aar.com.au

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Notes for editors.

Allens Arthur Robinson has staff in 14 cities and eight countries across the Asia Pacific.