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Article: Amid the slump, a rich seam of deals You would expect M&A to dry up in a downturn but, as Ben Harrington explains, the City is seeing some oft-rumoured deals become reality
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- August 17, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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On the evening of Tuesday August 5, Brad Mills, the chief
executive of Lonmin, was in Marikana, a mining complex in the
Bushveld region of South Africa, when he received a call from Mick
Davis, his counterpart at Xstrata, the mining giant.
He wasn't expecting it to be a social call but Mills was still
taken aback by Davis's abrupt message: the next morning, Lonmin
would receive a takeover offer from Xstrata.
Mills immediately asked Davis for more details - price,
structure, timing. But Davis curtly informed him that the details
would be on the screen in the morning and rang off.
When Mills rang to tell the rest of his board, his fellow
directors were shocked - and they weren't the only ...