Just after the South African market closed, Rio Tinto said it has "unanimously" rejected BHP Billiton's pre-conditional offer as not being in the best interests of shareholders, after earlier saying it would "carefully" consider the offer. Shares in South African and Australian listed diversified miner BHP Billiton (BIL) closed more than 3.07%, or 722c, lower at R228 in Johannesburg on Wednesday after it said it had sweetened its offer for its rival Rio Tinto. BHP Billion said earlier that it has increased its offer from three-for-one to 3.4 BHP Billiton shares per Rio Tinto share. Rio Tinto's chairperson, Paul Skinner, said: "BHP Billiton's offers, while improved, still fail to recognise the underlying value of Rio Tinto's quality assets and prospects. Our plans are unchanged, and will remain so unless a proposal is made that fully reflects the value of Rio Tinto."
