Rio Tinto Taps Evercore’s Robey, JPMorgan for Glencore Deal
(Bloomberg) — Rio Tinto Group has brought on a slate of bankers including Simon Robey, one of the UK’s top rainmakers, as it pursues a deal for Glencore Plc, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The mining company has lined up advisers including Evercore Inc., which bought the dealmaker’s London boutique Robey Warshaw last year, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co., the people said. Rio is also working with Macquarie Group Ltd., according to the people.
UBS Group AG is one of Rio’s corporate brokers, though it doesn’t currently have an active role on the transaction, some of the people said.
Citigroup Inc. — which is traditionally close to Glencore and has been involved in many of their recent transactions — has been speaking to them about getting a role on the deal, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Citigroup, JPMorgan and UBS have all gone restricted or suspended their ratings on Rio and Glencore shares in recent days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of Rio were up 1.3% in London trading Tuesday, valuing the company at about £105 billion ($141 billion). Glencore shares gained 0.4% for a market capitalization of £55 billion.
Mark Kelly, chief executive officer of merger arbitrage specialist MKI Global Partners, said shareholders still have “plenty more questions than answers” about how a deal would work. However, if Rio can find a way to align financial discipline, strategic consistency and the complications of its dual-listed structure, then investors will support them, he said in a note Tuesday.
Since the announcement of the early-stage talks this month, top Wall Street banks including Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley have been scrambling to land a spot on the high-profile deal, people with knowledge of the matter said. Goldman and JPMorgan advised Rio on its $6.7 billion takeover of Arcadium Lithium Plc completed last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
A number of top advisers may be conflicted out due to roles on other major deals in the industry like Anglo American Plc’s pending acquisition of Teck Resources Ltd. Firms that traditionally work with BHP are also unlikely to get a key role.
As banks jockey for advisory and financing roles, the companies are likely to bring on more firms. Representatives for Rio, Glencore, Bank of America, Citigroup, Evercore, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley and UBS declined to comment.
–With assistance from Paul-Alain Hunt, Mark Burton and Thomas Biesheuvel.
(Updates with Bank of America response, analyst quote. An earlier version corrected to show in the third paragraph that UBS is corporate broker but doesn’t have an active role on the transaction.)
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