Rio Tinto today set out its defence against BHP Billiton’s £62.4 billion takeover bid by promising to reward shareholders with a 30 per cent dividend hike and raising its global sell-off programme to $15 billion (£7.4 billion).

Tom Albanese, chief executive at Rio Tinto, insisted the Anglo-Australian group’s true value had yet to be “fully reflected” by stock markets and that it was “exceptionally well placed” to benefit from the commodity boom.

"We are poised for exceptional growth," he said. "While BHP may need Rio Tinto, Rio Tinto does not necessarily need BHP.”

Mr Albanese said the group plans to increase its dividend payout by 30 per cent this year and by at least 20 per cent in each of the following two years.

He added that the divestment target set at the time of the £19 billion acquisition of Alcan earlier this year would be raised from $10 billion to $15 billion.

Potential cost savings from the Alcan deal have been increased from $600 million to $940 million.

And the group laid out a ‘conceptual pathway’ that will see iron ore production treble to 600 million tonnes, in part on the back of a $2.4 billion investment programme in Western Australia. Production is planned to hit 430 million tonnes by 2018.

Shares in the group rose 3 per cent, or 167p to £54.82, pushing Rio Tinto to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard.

It rejected BHP’s takeover approach two weeks ago, claiming the shock bid significantly undervalued the business.

Mr Albanese said today: “We believe we have a better growth pipeline than our competitors, which puts Rio Tinto in a strong position to supply the metal hungry world.

“We have the people, the execution capability and resources to work smarter, faster and better than our competitors.

“We also believe our track record of delivery is unrivalled and we look forward with confidence to a hugely exciting future.”

So far Rio’s shareholders have backed Mr Albanese, and his insistence that many of its assets are undervalued, but they are understood to be waiting to see if BHP increases its bid.

Senior BHP executives recently toured Asia touting the proposed deal to existing and potential customers in China and elsewhere, many of whom are uneasy about the prospect.

A combined BHP-Rio giant would have a combined market capitalisation of $350 million and dominate iron ore supply in the Asian-Pacific region.

Speculation that a Chinese consortium planned an initial 200-billion-US-dollar counterbid for the mining giant caused Rio’s shares to surge in Australia on Monday ahead of Mr Albanese’s statement.

The Beijing newspaper China Business reported that the country’s newly launched sovereign wealth fund would ally with Chinese steel makers to make the offer.

However a spokesman for the sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp., denied it had taken part in a bid.

Mr Albanese added: “We have not been engaged in discussions with anyone at this stage.”

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