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"In terms of the benefits they could get for the investment, Chinalco could potentially buy raw materials from Rio, since they produce aluminum. But we haven't seen this happening yet."

Rio's gearing is expected to drop to about 37 percent after the rights offer from 61 percent, analysts estimate. Rio's market value has slumped 64 percent in little over a year, partly due to the debt-funded Alcan buy.

"People still view Rio as having very good assets, and don't want to be diluted. But you'd want the board to be considering what it was that led up to the Alcan purchase and try and improve the processes so that sort of thing doesn't happen again," Barker said.

Rio offered 21 new shares for every 40 held, priced at a steeply discounted A$28.29 per Sydney-listed share and 1,400 pence per London-listed share.

The banks on the deal were Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan Cazenove, Macquarie, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Societe Generale.

(Additional reporting by Sui-lee Wee in Hong Kong; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Dan Lalor)

($1 = A$1.25 = 0.6082 pound)