LSE float predicted after Linklaters scoops $2.2bn Glencore bond issue
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Linklaters has bagged a role advising commodities company Glencore on its $2.2bn (£1.35bn) bond issue - a deal that could pave the way for a flotation later in the year.
Charlie Jacobs
Corporate partner Charlie Jacobs and capital markets partner Keith Thomson are understood to have led the London team acting for the Swiss-based commodity trader.
US firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted for the First Reserve-led group of private equity investors that bought the convertible bonds. Simpson Thacher New York corporate partner Bill Curbow took the lead advising the group, which included BlackRock, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and China’s Zijin Mining Group.
The bonds would represent just under 6 per cent of Glencore’s value if they were converted into stock, with the company valued at around $37bn according to the price of the bond.
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton acted for bond arrangers Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. The Cleary team was led by London-based capital markets partner Ashar Qureshi.
Sources familiar with the transaction said the bond issue could foreshadow an IPO later in 2010, possibly on the London Stock Exchange. Any listing would be one of the biggest in Europe this year.
Glencore owns around a third of the shares in Swiss-based FTSE100 mining company Xstrata.
The deal comes after Allen & Overy and Latham & Watkins scored lead roles on Manchester United FC’s £500m bond issue and Ashurst advised National Express on a £350m bond issue.
None of the firms involved in the Glencore deal were available for comment.
