2007 Financial statements

Note 28 - Share capital - Rio Tinto plc

	2007 Number(m)	2006 Number(m)	2007 US$m	2006 US$m
Issued and fully paid up share capital
At 1 January	1,071.49	1,071.02	172	172
Ordinary shares issued (a)	0.31	1.27	-	-
Own shares purchased and cancelled (b)	-	(0.80)	-	-
Special Voting Share of 10p (d)	1 only	1 only	-	-
DLC Dividend Share of 10p (d)	1 only	1 only	-	-
At 31 December	1,071.80	1,071.49	172	172
- shares repurchased and held in treasury (b)	74.55	47.82
- shares held by public	997.25	1,023.67

Shares held by public
At 1 January	1,023.67	1,068.42
Ordinary shares issued (a)	0.31	1.27
Own shares purchased and cancelled (b)	-	(0.80)
Shares reissued from treasury	0.97	1.12
Shares repurchased and held in treasury (b)	(27.70)	(46.34)
Shares held by public	997.25	1,023.67

Unissued share capital
Ordinary shares of 10p each	349.43	349.74	51	51
Equalisation Share of 10p (d)	1 only	1 only	-	-
Total authorised share capital	1,421.23	1,421.23	223	223

Notes

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311,458 Ordinary shares were issued, and 969,435 Ordinary shares reissued from treasury during the year resulting from the exercise of options under Rio Tinto plc employee share based payment plans at contracted prices between 808.8p and 2,799p (2006: 2,382,591 shares issued at prices between 808.8p and 1,925p).
At the 2007 annual general meeting, the shareholders renewed the general authority for the Company to buy back up to ten per cent of its Ordinary shares of 10p each for a further period of 12 months. The share buyback programme was suspended on 12 July 2007 at the time the Alcan offer was announced. Rio Tinto is seeking renewal of this approval at its annual general meeting in 2008. During the year to 31 December 2007, 27,700,000 shares were bought back and held in treasury (2006: 46,340,000) at an average buy back price of £30.05 per share (2006: £27.27). No shares were cancelled during the year ended 31 December 2007 (2006: 800,000 shares bought back at an average buy back price of £27.36 and cancelled). The total consideration paid was US$1,648 million (2006: US$2,394 million).
The aggregate consideration received for shares issued during 2007 was US$13 million (2006: US$31 million). The aggregate consideration received for treasury shares reissued was US$24 million (2006: US$24 million).
The 'Special Voting Share' was issued to facilitate the joint voting by shareholders of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited on Joint Decisions, following the DLC merger. Directors have the ability to issue an Equalisation Share if that is required under the terms of the DLC Merger Sharing Agreement. The 'DLC Dividend Share' was issued to facilitate the efficient management of funds within the DLC structure.
Information relating to share options and other share based incentive schemes is given in note 48 on share based payments.