From the AFR:
Hedge funds including GLG Partners, DE Shaw & Co, and Pentwater Capital Management were told this month by a prominent London mining banker to prepare for an all-but-inevitable takeover of Rio Tinto by Glencore, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Former JPMorgan Chase & Co. dealmaker Ian Hannam, who now runs a boutique advisory firm, convened representatives of more than 20 investors at Corrigan’s Mayfair restaurant in the British capital in mid-November to share his views on the potential deal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.
The meeting was intended in part to help position Hannam’s firm, Hannam & Partners, to win a role in the transaction, the people said.
“If not today, this deal will happen sometime in the near future,” Hannam said in his presentation, according to a copy seen by Bloomberg. “Glencore is M&A savvy and times deals well. The combination will create a super-major with a diversified portfolio of world-class mining assets.”
Mental note: Short Ian Hannam. This is rubbish. China and Chinalco will never agree to this merger. Why on earth would they:
- vertically intregrated miner/trader with the power to manipulate prices;
- a CEO with the declared intention of reducing iron ore supply, same as he is doing right now in coal, rather foolishly;
- Chinalco bought its RIO stake to block just these kinds of outcomes.
