Reuters recently reported that Mr Marius Kloppers CEO of BHP Billiton Limited has ruled out adding a cash sweetener to its all share USD 69 billion offers for rival Rio Tinto Limited saying financial turmoil hitting commodity markets was no reason to change.

Mr Marius Kloppers said that "Our offer is very compelling the way it is answering questions following a speech in Sydney. Joining these companies together means more production at lower costs."

Some analysts said that deterioration in the value of offer to about half the original price, leading to Rio shares trading at a significant discount, was also an argument for adding cash.

But Mr Kloppers blamed the sharper decline in Rio's share price, which has dropped 43% since last November on a flux in the market over the outcome of the bid. BHP's stock is down about 37% over the same period.

As per report, there has been market speculation BHP might try and win over Rio's board, which has rejected the overture, by adding cash to its offer of 3.4 of its shares for every Rio share.