While it is true that Australians dominate Rio's senior ranks and its Australian operations still represent the majority of Rio's operations, CRA is a branch office and its ambitions have been forever constrained by its absorption into Rio. It will never be anything but an Australasian business directed from London. Woodside may suffer the same fate if the Government approves Shell's bid. One of the bid's stated purposes is to stop Woodside from expanding outside Australasia and competing with Shell, its major shareholder. If BHP doesn't attempt to globalise, it will go the same way.
Globalisation is driven by the financial markets.
International funds managers want to invest in international companies. They prefer to do so through the big, highly liquid stock exchanges like New York and London. For companies like BHP, NAB or AMP, which have international operations and compete with other international companies, the global consolidation of industries together with the globalisation of markets and investors leaves them at a significant disadvantage. Australia represents less than 2 per cent of the global equity markets - we scarcely register on the consciousness of US and European fund managers. Thus our companies suffer a marked disadvantage relative to their US and northern hemisphere-based competitors.