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| Jinchuan | |
| Size | R9.112 billion acquisition of Metorex |
| Advisers | Goldman Sachs (Jinchuan), Standard Bank (Metorex) |
| return to the Middle East and Africa Deals of the Year index | |
Further south, the standout M&A deal of the year was Chinese company Jinchuan’s R9.112 billion ($1.02 billion) acquisition of Metorex. It told us a lot about the changing nature of Chinese acquisition in resource-rich Africa.
Metorex is a Johannesburg-listed metals and mining company whose main attraction is its range of copper and cobalt assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. In 2011, after sifting through a number of bids, the board recommended to sell to Brazil’s Vale, on condition that Metorex disposed of its interests in a copper-processing facility in Zambia.
Ordinarily, that would have been that. "Vale had the deal sewn up except for one or two elements of detail, one being shareholder approval," recalls Brad Webber at Standard Bank in South Africa, Metorex’s adviser. "Everything else was done and dusted."
And then in came Jinchuan Group, a Chinese mining company. In July 2011 it stormed in offering a 21% premium to the Vale offer.
