Under the deal, OneSteel will acquire global mining leader Anglo American plcs Moly-Cop and AltaSteel businesses in the Americas for US$932 million.

Allens corporate partner Andrew Finch told The New Lawyer the deal was truly cross border as the firm coordinated a global due diligence comprising lawyers in Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.

Negotiations occurred in London in recent weeks, against a US law firm, with an Australian purchaser, he said.

Allens negotiated and drafted a share purchase agreement, provided advice to the OneSteel board, and facilitated the global coordination of anti-trust advice and filings.

“It was quite a number of weeks of detailed due diligence and coordinating due diligence across multi jurisdictions. We were dealing with documents in multiple languages - local firms do the review of the local documents and put it in to standard template. We streamline that and report through to the client. The client wants a single voice reporting to them – so we were the conduits. That was an interesting aspect of the deal,” Finch said.

OneSteel’s acquisition of Moly-Cop and AltaSteel will position OneSteel as a global player in grinding media and provide a platform for further growth in mining consumables, Finch said.

OneSteel is a long-time client of the firm. Finch says he has worked with them continuously, doing major acquisitions.

VIEW ALL

The firm acted for OneSteel when it listed on the ASX, as well as the transformational merger with Smorgon Steel in 2007.

Finch also worked with OneSteel in April 2009 on their capital raising. The firm also provides regular advice on litigation and finance, he said. Also, partner Wendy Peters, who led the competition elements on the most recent acquisition, is “a particular favourite for competition work” for OneSteel, Finch said.

The Australian team in this deal was “relatively small”, said Finch. It was the Australian lawyers’ job to make sense of the large amounts of documents being translated by local lawyers in Chile, Peru and Mexico.

AS well as Andrew Finch and Wendy Peter, finance partner Diccon Loxton, senior associates in corporate, Richard Bell and Annabel Verco and senior associates in competition, Alexander Gelis and Verity Quinn, worked on the deal.