Leading Brazilian tin producer Paranapanema has agreed to sell two units to another leading tin miner in the region, Peru's Minera Minsur.
The US$470 million transaction closed on 22 September, with Minsur making the purchase through its Brazilian arm, Serra da Madeira Participações.
José Prado, a partner with Minsur's Brazilian counsel, Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados, says, "At a moment in which several M&A transactions are taking place in Brazil's mining sector, it was interesting to work on a deal between two of Latin America's main tin mining companies."
Much of the legal work focused on the due diligence procedures for the mining rights, but lawyers also had to adapt the deal to the limitations imposed by Paranapanema's debt restructuring programme, which is still in progress.
Of the assets being sold, the Taboca mine produces tin, iron and niobium at its Pitinga mine - one of the most important mines in the State of Amazonas. The other, Mamore, is a metals foundary in the State of São Paulo which treats the output from the Pitinga mine, as well as some concentrates from smaller Brazilian mines.
In July, the world's largest iron ore company, Vale, declared its interest in acquiring Paranapanema's copper smelting unit, Caraiba Metais and fertilizer unit, Cibrafertil, but no formal offer has been published.
Counsel to Paranapanema
• Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados
Partner Carlos Barbosa Mello and associate Jean Arakawa
Counsel to Serra da Madeira Participações
Brazil
• Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados
Partners José Roberto Opice, José Ribeiro do Prado Júnior, Celso de Paula F da Costa, and associates Milton Pinatti and Mariana Aranha
Counsel to Minera Minsur
• In-house counsel - Emilio Alfageme
Peru
• Rodrigo, Elías & Medrano Abogados
Partner Jean Paul Chabaneix and associate Silvia Muñoz
(Latin Lawyer 01.10.2008)
(Notícia na íntegra)
