A prominent British commodities dealmaker is suing Barrick Gold over claims he engineered its $6bn tie-up with Randgold Resources only to be “pushed out” of the deal at the last minute. Ian Hannam, who earned a reputation as the “king of mining M&A” for his role in a raft of big-name deals, told the High Court in London that he found it “very upsetting” that his H&P Advisory boutique was not paid for its “extensive” work on arranging the 2018 merger.
In written arguments, they said Randgold and Barrick had “already been discussing a potential merger for years” and there was in any event “no written evidence of any such alleged agreement” with H&P for the payment of fees. In his witness statement, Hannam said he played a central role bringing together two of the biggest personalities in the mining industry in Randgold’s chief executive Mark Bristow and Barrick’s John Thornton.