Forrest funds find their way to charity
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MINING identity Andrew Forrest has continued his philanthropic ways, donating his all-scrip director payment from Poseidon Nickel to his charity, The Australian Children's Trust.
As chairman of Poseidon, Mr Forrest this week received nearly 40,000 shares in lieu of director's fees for the June quarter.
However, Mr Forrest, who is also chief executive of Fortescue Metals Group, donated the shares to Leaping Joey, which acts as a trustee for The Australian Children's Trust.
The trust was set up in 2001 by Mr Forrest and his wife, Nicola, to help underprivileged children, particularly in indigenous communities.
The following year, Leaping Joey was entwined in a series of transactions linked to Mr Forrest's departure from Anaconda Nickel, his most significant venture prior to Fortescue.
In late 2007, Mr Forrest made a $80 million donation to the charity, comprising 1 million Fortescue shares and 115 million Poseidon options.
Since then, he has donated his director's share payment of Poseidon shares to the trust while retaining a stake of 5 million Poseidon shares.
The latest donation follows last month's gift of nearly $10 million worth of Fortescue shares to various unnamed recipients.
Walsh buys in
PERTH-based Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Sam Walsh has spent nearly $700,000 participating in the miner's $US15.2 billion ($A18.7 billion) rights issue.
In a notice to the Australian Securities Exchange, the newly appointed Rio Tinto board member bought 23,047 shares at a substantially discounted price of $28.29 each.
Overall, Mr Walsh spent $652,000 boosting his stake in the miner.
At the end of the purchase, Mr Walsh held 66,950 ordinary Rio shares, which, valued at a closing price of $47.60, are worth $3.19 million.
Rio received valid acceptances for 94.76 per cent of the new shares offered to shareholders.
Managers of the rights issue - Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and Macquarie - found buyers for the remaining shares, 7.86 million shares, which were priced at $48.50 each.