In a? report with mergermarket, The New Lawyer?s top 15 M&A deals rankings reveal which Australian law firms worked on the biggest deals of the year.
They write:
Allens Arthur Robinson worked on 7 of the top 15, as did Freehills, while Blake Dawson worked on 4 and Mallesons Stephen Jaques worked on 3. Other firms featuring in the top 15 deals include Gilbert +Tobin, Johnson Winter & Slattery, Baker & Mckenzie, Clayton Utz and Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
The list of deals, ranging from the BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto?s signing of a binding agreement on combining their vast iron ore operations in Western Australia. The mining giants said the agreement was aimed at savings worth an estimated 10 billion US dollars.
For the law firms involved on the deal, including Allens Arthur Robinson, Blake Dawson and Freehills, as well as international firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May, the deal was not only the biggest of the year, it was the biggest ever involving an Australian company. The deal, announced on 5 December, was valued at A$58,000 million, making it the largest on The New Lawyer and mergermarket?s top 15 deals of the year.
While no other deal came close in terms of value this year, Australia some relatively large M&A involving energy and resources companies, experts said.
Paul Quinn, executive partner of Allens Arthur Robinson?s corporate practice, said yesterday the results show that Australia has been ranking well against its global counterparts in mergers and acquisitions in the past year.
?The year has been good,? said Quinn. ?It?s been mixed. We certainly haven?t had the volume of deals we had a couple of years ago, but ? in relation to Australia, you?ll see the Australian deals sit pretty strong relative to the rest of the word.?
Full report at? http://www.thenewlawyer.com.au/article/top-15-m-a-deals-of-the-year-revealed/508760.aspx
