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Alcan's Evans to head new Rio Tinto Alcan
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Alcan Inc. AL.TO Chief Executive Dick Evans is set to head the world's largest aluminum producer after wringing a top-dollar takeover bid from Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L).
If Rio's all-cash $38.1 billion bid for the Canadian company succeeds, it will wrap its combined aluminum assets into a new entity to be called Rio Tinto Alcan, with industry veteran Evans at the helm.
The deal gives Evans -- who has only been in the top job at Alcan since March 2006 -- a role in a what is being billed by some as the world's biggest mining deal and the largest takeover in Canadian history.
On Evans' watch, Alcan fell from second to third place among global aluminum producers, following the emergence of Russia's Rusal. But analysts gave him high marks for fending off Alcoa Inc.'s (AA.N) hostile bid and exacting a much higher price from Rio Tinto.
"I think he's done exactly what he should do, and that is get the best price for the shareholders, and he's played it very very well," said analyst Charles Bradford, of Bradford Research/Soleil.
Rio's offer of $101 a share was well above the cash and stock bid from U.S. aluminum producer Alcoa, which valued Alcan at around $76 a share, based on Wednesday's closing prices.
"I hate to see these great Canadian mining companies disappear, but we're sure making a ton of money off this, and I guess, bottom line, that's what you're supposed to do for your clients," said John Kinsey, a portfolio manager and Alcan holder at Caldwell Securities.
Rio Tinto Alcan will be the world's largest producer of bauxite and fourth in alumina production, according to Rio Tinto, which made its all-cash bid on Thursday with the unanimous approval of Alcan's board.
It business would have Montreal as its headquarters, but the new group's bauxite and alumina assets would be managed globally from Brisbane.
Evans, 59, would join Rio Tinto's board of directors to head the aluminum business, reporting directly to its chief executive, Tom Albanese.
Before becoming CEO, Evans worked in a number of positions at Alcan, overseeing all four of its business groups, during which he traveled extensively to its far-flung operations.
He had a key role in Alcan's takeover and integration of French rival Pechiney, and its subsequent corporate strategy to develop new global expansion projects in bauxite, alumina and aluminum production.
Evans joined Alcan in January 1997 as senior adviser of corporate development, following 27 years at Kaiser Aluminum Corp. He replaced Travis Engen as CEO last year
Born in Oregon, Evans has a bachelor's degree in engineering from Oregon State University and a master's degree in management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
(Additional reporting by Cameron French in Toronto)
