Globe Specialty Metals/FerroAtlántica merger

Overview:

• Silicon-metal producers Globe Specialty Metals and Spain's FerroAtlántica have merged with an enterprise value of $3.1 billion to form a company controlled by FerroAtlántica shareholders.
• The combined company aims to build on FerroAtlantico's presence in Europe and Globe Specialty's footprint in North America, betting on growing demand from carmakers to solar energy companies.
• FerroAtlántica, owned by Spanish billionaire Juan Miguel Villar Mir's industrial conglomerate Grupo Villar Mir, will own 57% of the new company. Globe shareholders will own the rest.
• It was the first tax inversion carried out by a US listed company with a Spanish company.
• The combined company will have 4,700 employees working across 26 factories and nine mines in nine countries. It will be headquartered in London and listed on the Nasdaq.
• Goldman Sachs & Co and Nomura Securities International were Globe Specialty's financial advisers, and Societe Generale advised Grupo FerroAtlántica.

Adam Majeed - Regional editor