Ogier acts on US$2 Billion Rio Tinto sale

Ogier is acting as Jersey counsel to Rio Tinto Alcan on the sale of its European Food, Global Pharmaceutical and Global Tobacco segments of its Packaging Division to the Australian based Amcor Limited in a deal value of at slightly more than US$2 billion. Amcor is a leading global packaging manufacturer offering a broad range of plastic, fibre, metal and glass packaging products, along with packaging-related services.

The combined company will be one of the world’s leading packaging companies with significant breadth of expertise, products and services.  As at June 2009, Amcor generated AU$9.53 billion in sales from operations in 34 countries and has 226 sites worldwide, with approximately 21,000 employees worldwide.

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

The Ogier team has been led by Chris Byrne (Partner) who has been supported by Paul Burton, (Senior Associate) Anna Cochrane and Catherine Vincenti.