The admission came after Rio Tinto posted the most spectacular single-day of trade in the company's rich history, its shares at one stage surging an astonishing 11%.
The mining giant even copped a speeding ticket from the Australian Stock Exchange – a treatment more commonly reserved for junior exploration plays.
Seemingly the only record left unbroken at the end of the day was the psychological $100 per share mark. Rio came as close as $99.69 but just failed to become the first mining stock since the infamous Poseidon to break the barrier.
At the end of the day, Rio shares closed at $95.50 – a gain of $5.80.
In its response to the ASX query, Rio Tinto said it was not aware of any takeover bid from BHP. However, those who are keen on keeping the bid rumours alive will take consolation in the fact Rio's denial only related to BHP.
Speculation has abounded for days amongst analysts and investors that BHP and/or private equity have been eyeing a takeover offer for Rio.
However, analysts remained sceptical of any real likelihood of an offer, with one senior investment banker saying he'd be surprised if BHP had made a bid for Rio Tinto.
"I think this has been caught up in some of these perennial kind of rumours," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Something might be happening but it seems a bit odd to me that BHP ... would contemplate doing something so massive at this point."
Earlier this week, three brokerages – Goldman Sachs JBWere, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup – hinted at the possibility that Rio Tinto was a perfect takeover target for either BHP or a private equity consortium.
A note published by an analyst at Citigroup highlighted the Big Australian could afford the $100 billion-plus needed to take out the smaller Rio Tinto and would be able to pay off the debt in five to six years.
Rio Tinto's strong cash flow could also make it an attractive target for private equity firms, Citigroup analyst Clarke Wilkins said in the report.
"But we think BHP Billiton is a much more likely bidder given synergies and
nationalistic control issue of Australian assets," Wilkins wrote in the report.
The BHP-Rio rumours gathered legs despite the fact BHP is effectively leaderless – Chip Goodyear will step down later this year and a successor is yet to be announced.
Shares in BHP rose 75c yesterday to close at $31.93.
