Rothschild and Bakries join hands in complex M&A deal

One of the year’s most complex MA deals, involving a backdoor listing and well-known banking family scion Nathaniel Nat Rothschild and Indonesian tycoons, the Bakrie brothers, was announced yesterday. The deal, which has a value of around $3 billion, creates an Indonesian “resources champion” and allows the Bakries to become the first Indonesians to have a London Stock Exchange-listed firm. It is also a reflection of how established money from the West is increasingly looking east for higher growth and better returns.

Integral to the transaction is Vallar, a company founded by Nat Rothschild and mining industry veteran James Campbell. Vallar is essentially a company created to effect an acquisition, also termed a...