CSN sells Riversdale stake for $830 mln

Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:37pm GMT

* CSN sells its 19.9 pct stake in Riversdale to Rio Tinto
* CSN sells 47 mln Riversdale shares at A$16.50 each

SAO PAULO, April 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian steelmaker CSN (CSNA3.SA: Quote)(SID.N: Quote) struck a deal to sell its 19.9 percent stake in Australian coal miner Riversdale to mining giant Rio Tinto for A$780 million ($830 million), according to a securities filing.

Sao Paulo-based CSN, Brazil's largest diversified steelmaking group, sold 47.29 million Riversdale shares at a price of A$16.50 each, the filing said. The shares (RIV.AX: Quote) closed little changed at A$16.50 in Sydney on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Rio Tinto (RIO.AX: Quote)(RIO.L: Quote) said it had won control of 72 percent of Riversdale after CSN accepted the offer.

Rio Tinto became Riversdale's controlling shareholder on April 8 despite failing to persuade India's Tata Steel (TISC.BO: Quote) and CSN to sell their combined 47 percent stake in the company over the previous three months.

CSN shares rose 1.8 percent to 24.43 reais on Wednesday in Sao Paulo. The shares are down 8.3 percent this year, the smallest decline among Brazilian steelmakers listed in the Bovespa stock exchange. ($1=0.94 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Alberto Alerigi Jr; editing by John Wallace, Sourced Thomson Reuters)