Hot 100: Raj Karia, Norton Rose
Norton Rose corporate partner Raj Karia (scroll down for video interview) had a stellar 2012, thanks in part to his firm’s multiple mergers in the preceding few years.
Following deals with Australia’s Deacons, Canada’s Ogilvy Renault and Macleod Dixon, and South Africa’s Deneys Reitz, Karia advised Australia’s Allied Gold Mining on its 2011 London listing.
“We were recommended by a bank and were one of two or three firms that they spoke to,” says Karia. “I think we won because of our experience in the resources space and also because we offered a multi-jurisdictional one-stop shop in terms of Australia, Canada and London - the company was incorporated in London and listed in all three countries.”
The win led to further work when in 2012 Allied Gold was taken over by Australian gold miner St Barbara. Such experience and geographical reach has not gone unnoticed by other companies in the sector. At the end of 2012 Karia won the mandate to advise Rio Tinto, which has traditionally turned to firms such as Allens Arthur Robinson in Australia and Linklaters in the UK, on the $373m (£231m) sale of its stake in South Africa’s Palabora Mining to a consortium led by China’s Hebei Iron & Steel Group.
With Norton Rose preparing for yet another merger in 2013 - its tie-up with US firm Fulbright & Jaworski is due to go live on 1 June - Karia’s practice is set to benefit further. Randgold Resources, which has turned to Norton Rose for UK advice since 1996, is a Fulbright client in the US. The world, it seems, is Karia’s oyster.
