Sullivan & Cromwell finalises first UK corporate Rio Tinto deal

Sullivan & Cromwell has completed its first UK corporate deal for Rio Tinto, acting opposite Baker & McKenzie on the $1.2bn (£742,058) disposal of Rio’s Alcan Food Americas division to US packaging company Bemis.

The US firm was instructed by Rio Tinto last year following a beauty parade and fielded a team from London and New York led by London M&A partners Tim Emmerson and Nikolaos Andronikos, assisted by tax partner Michael McGowan.

Bemis turned to Bakers for advice on the acquisition, which saw it pick up around 23 of Alcan’s packaging operations across the Americas. Rio bought aluminium group Alcan in 2007 for $34bn (£21bn) but agreed to sell off some of its assets to pay off debt.

A global team from Bakers advised Bemis headed by Chicago corporate partner Dieter Schmitz alongside London corporate partner Jane Hobson.

Commenting on the deal Emmerson said: “It’s the first UK corporate deal we’ve done for Rio and we’ve been working on it for over a year. It’s the longest M&A transaction of my career and I’m relieved to get it agreed.”

The disposal comes little more than a month after Rio announced a $15.2bn (£9.38bn) rights issue and joint venture with one-time merger partner BHP Billiton and the collapse of a $19.5bn (£12.04bn) deal with Chinese resource giant Chinalco.

On those deals Rio turned to regular adviser Linklaters where corporate partner James Inglis led the teams, which also included capital markets partner Jane Brown, US corporate partner Tom Shropshire, corporate partner Jessamy Gallagher and competition partner Gavin Robert.