Freshfields, links bag biggest-ever aim deal

Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised on the $1.5bn (£822m) flotation of mining company Nikanor, the largest-ever AIM listing. Nikanor is the holding company of a copper and cobalt mining group in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the funds raised will be used for the redevelopment of three brownfield, open-pit copper and cobalt mines in the Congo copper belt, which offers some of the world's richest unexploited mineral deposits. Linklaters advised Nikanor, led by London partners Charlie Jacobs and Robert Cleaver, and Paris partner Simon Ratledge. Freshfields, meanwhile, represented the financial adviser and broker JPMorgan Cazenove.