Clayton Utz has advised on the US$775m acquisition of a 95% stake in Indonesia’s Martabe Mine, one of the largest leveraged buy-outs of a gold-producing asset globally.
Advising a consortium of EMR Capital, Farallon Capital and partners, the 95% stake was acquired from Hong Kong-listed company G-Resources Group.
Leading the Clayton Utz deal team was senior corporate adviser Rod Lyle and partner John Brewster, who led the complex cross-border negotiations.
“As lead counsel, the main task for the Clayton Utz team was to co-ordinate and project manage a diverse group of committed professionals in different geographies and various disciplines,” Lyle told
Australasian Lawyer.
“Banking, capital markets, stock exchange regulation, due diligence, Indonesian mining rules and buyer partnership arrangements needed to be co-ordinated.
“[There was a] need to be alive to various local and indigenous cultural issues and sensitivities in different parts of those jurisdictions. It was challenging, but certainly at the same time very much professionally satisfying to have successfully managed all of those important aspects to a successful conclusion.”
EMR Capital is a significant resources private equity fund in the region. Brewster said that as commodity prices stay low, EMR Capital is seeing more opportunities as larger companies look to sell mining assets.
“We expect to see increased activity in resources deals with a number of quality assets available at historically low valuations and confidence from some buyers at least that commodity prices have stopped falling and there is continued growth in the sector long term,” he said.
“This transaction demonstrates that private equity buyers with strong sector experience can successfully complete large acquisitions of mining assets, and perhaps we will see more examples of this in the year ahead.”
