From Sharp662 earlier: While Teck is actively evaluating potential deals, the company doesn’t want to jeopardize its credit rating by taking on too much debt for acquisitions, Teck Chief Financial Officer Ron Millos said.

This is an important consideration for Teck. They mentioned it in the VRIC talk as well. In that recording they said that they would take any potential deal to the ratings agency and ensure that it won't affect their credit rating. If it did, then they wouldn't be able to make it work.

They need to ensure their debt to net-debt-plus-equity ratio is below, or at 30%, where it is now. (As far as I can tell.)

I'm not sure I understand these terms but if they opt to back in for 75% and therefore also have to arrange financing, I wonder if that would be even worse for the debt to equity ratio than simply buying out our 100% entirely?