Australia's Clayton Utz has advised an international consortium led by private equity firms EMR Capital and Farallon Capital on a $775 million deal to secure a 95 percent stake in Indonesia's Martabe mine from G-Resources Group, which was advised by Sullivan & Cromwell.

At the financing level, Allen & Overy advised the borrowers EMR and Farallon on the senior financing and mezzanine financing, with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Hadiputranto Hadinoto & Partners representing senior and mezzanine, lenders including Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), London-headquartered HSBC, Malaysia’s Maybank, and Jakarta-based Bank Mandiri. 

The sale comes after a series of complex negotiations that took over two years to complete, resulting in one of the biggest leveraged buyouts of a gold mine on record. Located in northern Sumatra, Indonesia’s western-most island, the Martabe mine and generated more than 302,000 ounces of gold in 2015 and over 2.5 million ounces of silver.

Senior corporate adviser Rod Lyle and partner John Brewster handled the transaction for Clayton Utz. Singapore-based partner Jacqueline Chan led Milbank’s deal team, with support from partner James Warbey in London. The Allen & Overy team on the acquisition and financing components was led by led by partners Gautam Narasimhan in Singapore and Daniel Ginting in Jakarta, with the mezzanine financing component of the transaction led by partner John Richards in Singapore. A&O partner Vivian Yu provided regulatory advice relating to Hong Kong listing rules.

Other law firms on the deal were SSEK Legal Consultants, which acted as the Indonesian counsel of AIG, the W&I insurer to the transaction; and Walkers and Harneys, which acted as BVI counsel to the sponsors and G-Resources, respectively.