Quartet of firms advises as Mittal acquires parts of Lafarge and Anglo American

The sale, understood to be worth up to £272m, will see the two companies sell their UK building materials arms in anticipation of a joint venture, which is expected to be completed in early 2013.

Mayer Brown London corporate partners Jeffrey Gordon and Richard Page won the role advising steel entrepreneur Mittal on the sale, leading a team that includes tax partner James Hill and environmental partner Michael Hutchinson.

Freeth Cartwright took the lead advising French company Lafarge, led by the firm’s head of corporate Karl Jensen, while Eversheds corporate finance partner Robert Pitcher is understood to have led for mining giant Anglo.

A Linklaters corporate team led by partner Clodagh Hayes has been advising the mining company as it moves closer to a tie-up with Lafarge. The firm advised on the competition aspects of this sale, led by London-based competition partners Nicole Kar and Michael Cutting.

Anglo in-house counsel Jonathan Hoch also had a role on the transaction.

Background to this deal:

Mayer Brown’s Gordon advised Mittal last year, when Queens Park Rangers shareholder Bernie Ecclestone sold his stake in the Premier League football club - which Mittal owns the remaining third of - to Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes (19 August 2011).

Lafarge slashed all top 20 firms from its legal panel in favour of regionals in 2008 (12 September 2008) in a bid to slash its £1.5m yearly legal spend. East Midlands-based Freeth Cartwright has since stood on its UK legal panel of preferred legal advisers.

Linklaters and Eversheds are both longstanding advisers to mining company Anglo American, with Eversheds advising on the extension of Anglo American’s global managed networked IT services contract with British Telecommunications earlier this year.

US firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is advising Lafarge on corporate and competition aspects of the joint venture with Anglo, with London-based Simon Jay the lead corporate partner and Brussels and London-based Nicholas Levy leading on the competition side.