Alcoa vows to ‘listen better’ as it closes in on Alumina

Alcoa chief executive Bill Oplinger says the American aluminium giant will “listen better” to Australian stakeholders amid growing confidence he will secure the support of a Chinese state-owned entity in his bid for Australian partner Alumina.

Alcoa’s all-scrip bid for Alumina valued the target at $3.3 billion when it was announced in February, but the deal is worth closer to $4.65 billion on Wednesday after an 18 per cent rally in aluminium prices over the past seven weeks.