Linklaters and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton are advising on a joint venture (JV) between Anglo American and French industrial giant Lafarge which is set to create a UK building materials businesses with total sales of £1.8bn.

The proposed deal is a 50:50 JV combining the companies' UK cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, asphalt and contracting businesses. The parties said that the tie-up had been sparked due to complementary geographical distribution of operations.

The deal, announced on 18 February, still requires competition and regulatory clearance.

London corporate partner Clodagh Hayes (pictured) headed up the Linklaters corporate team advising Anglo, while Nicole Kar led the magic circle's firm's antitrust team.

Eversheds advised Anglo on due diligence, fielding a team led by corporate finance partner, Rob Pitcher, while Anglo was also advised by its in-house team led by senior legal adviser Jonathan Hoch.

Meanwhile, Cleary advised Lafarge with a team led by partner Simon Jay in London, while Paris partner Pierre-Yves Chabert led the initial termsheet discussions.

Cleary tax partner Richard Sultman and antritrust partner Nicholas Levy also took roles, while the US firm also advised on intellectual property, human resources and environmental issues.

Cleary acted alongside Howrey on antitrust matters, with Freeth Cartwright advising on UK real estate and environmental matters and Nabarro on pensions law.

Freeth Cartwright and Nabarro are both members of Lafarge's UK panel and the company is also a longstanding client of Cleary, which has advised on deals including Lafarge's $15bn (£9.3bn) acquisition of Orascom Building Materials in 2008, its €1bn (£847m) capital increases in 2003 and 2009 and a $2bn (£1.2bn) bond offering in 2006.

Linklaters has advised Anglo American on a range of deals including the aborted £41bn mega-merger with mining rival Xstrata in 2009, which eventually saw Xstrata – advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – walk away from a deal.