BHP in ongoing talks with EU over Rio takeover

By Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) - Miner BHP Billiton continues to be in discussions with EU competition officials before filing a submission about its planned takeover of rival Rio Tinto, a BHP spokesman said on Friday.

The fact that BHP, the world's biggest mining group, has not yet filed papers with the EU nearly three months after making a firm offer for Rio did not indicate there were any problems, BHP spokesman Illtud Harri said.

"You have ongoing discussions with the commission about what information they want, how they want it, and at some point you have to file, but it's an ongoing process," he said.

Rio Tinto spurned BHP's all-share offer, currently worth around $167 billion (84.5 billion pounds), shortly after BHP announced it on February 6.

Alberto Calderon, chief commercial officer and head of the firm's takeover team, told Reuters at the end of March that the firm was on track to file submissions with regulators early in the second quarter.

Harri declined to say when the filings were now expected to take place.

BHP Billiton has cautioned investors that gaining competition approval for a union of the top two mining groups by market capitalisation would be a long, complex process, taking anything from nine to 12 months.

Harri said the talks with EU officials did not revolve around what units of the combined business BHP might be prepared to divest to gain approval.