Former Centrica chief Laidlaw in talks to join Rio Tinto board

Sam Laidlaw, the former boss of Centrica (Frankfurt: A0DK6K - news) , is in talks to join the board of the mining giant Rio Tinto (Hanover: CRA1.HA - news) - an appointment that would place him among the leading candidates to become its next chairman.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Laidlaw is in advanced discussions with Rio, which has seen its financial performance benefit from rebounding commodity prices but which is facing a bribery probe in connection with an African iron ore project.

Sources close to the FTSE-100 miner said that it hoped to strike a formal deal with Mr Laidlaw to join its board as a non-executive director in the next few weeks.

His appointment would trigger speculation that he is being lined up to succeed Jan du Plessis, who has served as Rio's chairman since 2009, although insiders pointed out that the company had yet to announce his intention to retire.

Mr Laidlaw left Centrica, the owner of British Gas, at the end of 2014, since when he has focused on identifying takeover targets for Neptune Oil & Gas, a new energy investment company.

Neptune (KOSDAQ: 217270.KQ - news) , which is backed by the private equity firms Carlyle and CVC Capital Partners, is in talks to acquire assets in the UK North Sea and other locations from Engie (LSE: 0LD0.L - news) , a French energy group.

Mr Laidlaw is also a board member at HSBC Holdings (Frankfurt: 923893 - news) , where he chairs the remuneration committee, but is due to step down from that role this year.

If he does join Rio, the former Centrica chief would add significant energy markets expertise to the board of the mining group, which has operations spanning diamonds, iron ore and aluminium.

Earlier this week, Rio, the world's second-biggest miner, said it would pay a bigger-than-expected dividend after cost-cutting initiatives and higher commodity prices had helped transform its performance.

Rio said net profits hit $4.8bn in 2016 and that it had significantly reduced its borrowings, enabling it to enter this year "in good shape", according to Jean-Sebastien Jacques, its chief executive.

The company also said it would spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a share buyback, indicating that it is not weighing any major corporate acquisitions.

Rio's London-listed shares have risen by more than 80% over the last year, giving it a market value of almost £64bn.

One cloud looming on its horizon is a potential fine connected with anti-bribery investigations into payments made in connection with an iron ore mining development in Guinea.

Rio declined to comment on Thursday on the likely appointment of Mr Laidlaw.