SYDNEY (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto <RIO.AX> <RIO.L> wrapped up one of the world's biggest rights issues on Friday, saying its Australian shareholders had taken up 94.76 percent of their entitlements to the new shares. On Thursday, UK shareholders had taken up 96.97 percent of the deeply discounted, fully underwitten $15.2 billion rights offer, the fifth-biggest on record, putting the indebted Anglo-Australian group on a firmer financial footing. The issue also marks a bonanza for the banks that underwrote it ...

The Pacific Corporate Group, a company that helps big government pension funds decide how to invest their money, has agreed to pay $2 million to extract itself from a corruption investigation in New York. The settlement, announced Wednesday, will spare the firm from criminal or civil charges in a sprawling pension investigation led by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. State investigators and the Securities and Exchange Commission had accused a former PCG executive of agreeing to ...

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday raised the investment-grade ratings of Ventas Inc., citing steps the real estate investment trust has recently taken to shore up its capital position. The credit ratings agency upgraded its issuer default rating for Ventas and its subsidiaries to BBB from BBB-. The lower rating is Fitch's lowest investment-grade category before "junk" status. Fitch also raised ratings for three issues of Ventas' senior debt to BBB from BBB-. Those moves involve $867 million in unsecured revolving credit facilities ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former top UBS AG investment banker Jeffrey McDermott and several other Wall Street veterans have launched a boutique advisory firm focused on alternative energy and "cleantech" companies. The formation of Greentech Capital Advisors LLC represents two of the biggest trends in financial services these days. The New York firm becomes the latest in a legion of new niche firms taking advantage of the Wall Street shakeout and training its sights on fast-growing sectors of the economy. McDermott told Reuters much of the credit goes to his 14- ...