King & Wood Mallesons has continued to support long-term client China Molybdenum Co., Ltd (“CMOC”) on its global expansion, advising CMOC on the two largest mining acquisitions by a Chinese company this year - the US$1.5 billion acquisition of Anglo American’s niobium and phosphates businesses in Brazil and the US$2.65 billion acquisition of Freeport’s indirect 56% interest in Tenke Fungurume located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

King & Wood Mallesons has advised CMOC on all of its major outbound investments. Since advising CMOC on its acquisition of Rio Tinto’s majority stake in the Northparkes copper mine in Australia in 2013, the firm has remained close to CMOC as it searched for high quality offshore assets to expand and diversify its global portfolio.

The same core King & Wood Mallesons team from the United Kingdom, China, Australia and Hong Kong advised CMOC on all three transactions. The team also advised CMOC’s largest shareholder Cathay Fortune on an earlier USD 850 million off-market takeover bid.

The full team was led by anti-trust partners Susan Ning and Liu Cheng, Corporate partner Xu Ping and Securities partner Rebecca Chao in Beijing, Corporate partner Tim Bednall and managing associate Michaela Moore in London, Corporate partner Raymond Wong and senior associate Sherman Chan in Hong Kong, and Corporate partners Stephen Minns, Paul Schroder and Jingchuan Zhao (PRC Law) in Australia.