Xstrata Gets Deadline for Anglo American Bid

Updated with comments from Anglo American.

ZUG, Switzerland (TheStreet) -- Mining company Xstrata has been given three weeks to formalize its offer to buy rival Anglo American(AAUK), or walk away from the deal.

Xstrata has been given an Oct. 20 deadline to make a formalized bid for Anglo American, the world's biggest platinum extractor, by the U.K.'s Takeover Panel.

Anglo American reportedly approached the panel on Tuesday to force Xstrata to make a formal offer or walk away for six months.

The deadline for Xstrata to make a formal offer is now Oct. 20. Anglo-American rejected a merger-of-equals offer from Xstrata back in June, calling the offer "totally unacceptable."

Anglo American reiterated that stance Friday.

"Nothing since then has changed the board's view and the board reiterates its emphatic rejection of Xstrata's approach," the company said in a statement Friday.

A merger of the two companies would create a mining giant with a market capitalization of $68 billion, according to the Financial Times.

Xstrata so far has been unwilling to raise its offer but may have to do so to clinch the deal.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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