Dealmakers of the Year:
Mergers & Acquisitions:
Nigel Boardman, Slaughter and May
It’s the golden rule: He who has the gold rules. Add silver, copper, tin, nickel, aluminum, iron ore and just about any other mineral to that list, and you’d have a good description of the international dealmaking environment in 2007. It was a year in which the most intense M&A activity occurred outside the United States and some of the most sought-after strategic targets were natural resources companies. The exemplar: Anglo Australian mining giant BHP Billiton’s stalking of its main rival, Rio Tinto Group. BHP’s initial approach to Rio Tinto was revealed in November 2007; by February its hostile offer had been sweetened to just under $192.8 billion.
