UPDATE 2-Rio wraps up rights issue, Australian demand strong

* Australian shareholders take up 95 pct of entitlements

* Australian rump sold at A$48.50 per share

* Underwriters book handsome fees

(Adds sale of Australian rump, London shares)

SYDNEY, July 3 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto (RIO.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) wrapped up one of the world's biggest rights issues on Friday, saying Australian shareholders had taken up 95 percent of their entitlements to the new shares.

On Thursday, British shareholders had taken up 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 was a bonanza for its underwriters: Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), J.P. Morgan Cazenove (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Macquarie (MQG.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), RBS (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA: Quote, Profile, Research).

The underwriters of the two legs of the rights issue were paid a 2.75 percent fee, or around $420 million in total.

In Australia, banks sold the "rump" at A$48.50, 71 percent higher than the rights issue price of A$28.29, and in London the remaining shares sold on Thursday at 2,100 pence, 50 percent higher than the rights issue price of 1,400 pence.