Six C₃ cyclic trinuclear complexes [{M(Cp*)(L)}₃]³⁺ (M = Rh^III and Ir^III; Cp* = η⁵–C₅Me₅) containing adenosine nucleosides [L: adenosine (Hado), 2′-deoxyadenosine (Hdeoado) and 5′-acetyl-2′,3′-isopropylideneadenosine (Haipado)] were prepared and characterized by UV/Vis and circular dichroism (CD) spectra, NMR spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy and X-ray crystal structure analysis. The isolations of one and/or two diastereomers were successfully carried out for the four systems by second-order asymmetric transformation and/or fractional crystallization. Interestingly, a striking kinetic difference was found between the present Rh^III– and Ir^III–ado systems. The crystal structure of CCC-[{Rh(Cp*)(ado)}₃](CF₃SO₃)₃·2.5H₂O·CH₃OH revealed that the ado ligand adopts a μ-1κN¹:2κ²N⁶,N⁷ bridging mode and the three purine rings forming a triangle dome-like cavity can include one methanol molecule into its cavity. The absolute configurations were assigned to these complexes based on the crystal structural result and CD spectral arguments. The Rh^III–N-methyl adenosine (HNMeado) system exceptionally gave a di-μ-hydroxy anti-dinuclear structure because of the weak coordination ability of the N(6) donor.