Slaughters' Boardman wins top role on £67bn mining mega-merger approach
Slaughter & May corporate heavyweight Nigel Boardman has snared a lead role on BHP Billiton's £67bn bid for Anglo-Australian rival Rio Tinto, which would create the world's biggest mining company.
November 14, 2007 at 09:27 PM
2 minute read
Slaughter & May corporate heavyweight Nigel Boardman has snared a lead role on BHP Billiton's £67bn bid for Anglo-Australian rival Rio Tinto, which would create the world's biggest mining company.
BHP, which saw its initial £67bn approach rejected by Rio Tinto last week (8 November), is understood to be readying itself for a fresh bid in the coming weeks, with many analysts predicting the approach could go hostile.
Boardman is leading the team for longstanding client BHP, acting alongside a big-name team including corporate partner Elizabeth Holden and finance partner Andrew Balfour. The firm is acting opposite magic circle rival Linklaters, where London-based corporate partners Richard Godden and James Inglis are understood to be acting for Rio Tinto.
The deal is the latest in a raft of M&A mandates gifted to Linklaters by the company including advising on its $34bn (£16.8bn) merger with Canadian metal group Alcan earlier this year.
Godden led the Linklaters team on that deal with Inglis also playing a role.
Balfour told Legal Week: "A deal of this size and sophistication involving two dual-listed worldwide companies only comes along once in a lifetime. Between them, BHP and Rio Tinto have mining operations in every continent and, if combined, will become one of the biggest companies in the world."
BHP, which is headquartered in Melbourne, is listed on stock exchanges in Australia, the UK, the US, South Africa, Germany and Switzerland and has over 35,000 employees worldwide.
The mining giant recently named the managing partner of Australian firm Freehills, Mike Ferraro, as its new general counsel following the announcement of incumbent legal chief John Fast's retirement in June.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllDavis Polk Veterans Launch M&A, Private Equity Boutique in France & Italy
2 minute readDentons and Eversheds Advise on Billion-Dollar Gulf Infrastructure Projects
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1The Law Firm Disrupted: Playing the Talent Game to Win
- 2A&O Shearman Adopts 3-Level Lockstep Pay Model Amid Shift to All-Equity Partnership
- 3Preparing Your Law Firm for 2025: Smart Ways to Embrace AI & Other Technologies
- 4BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 5A RICO Surge Is Underway: Here's How the Allstate Push Might Play Out
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250