Nippon Steel hires Mike Pompeo to advise on US Steel deal
Nippon Steel also faces objections from the powerful United Steelworkers (USW) union, which fears the deal could lead to job losses.
The bad news first: 2013 was the worst year for mergers and acquisitions in recent history, with the volume of deals dropping 33% to the lowest level since 2005.
Now for the good news: According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest Global Mining Deals report, the mining industry can expect an uptick in M&A throughout 2014.
Though these deals will be “smarter, more conservative,” 2014 will be characterized by joint ventures, mid-tier buyers, and more mergers or sales from juniors, PwC predicts. The gold price drop will also make buying gold assets more appealing – especially in Canada.
“You aren’t going to see the big dollars in riskier jurisdictions,” PwC wrote, quoting Brett Mattison of Gold Fields.
As evidence of a strong start to the year, PwC points to Goldcorp’s hostile takeover bid for Osisko – though Osisko has called the offer “opportunistic” and some say Goldcorp is trying to take advantage of a weak gold market.
“The turnaround won’t mirror the surge in movement we saw back in 2011, but expect deal making to resurface in most parts of the world this year as both an opportunity and in some cases a necessity for companies across the sector,” PwC Global Mining Leader John Gravelle said in a statement.
“Companies have been cleaning up their balance sheets and putting off decisions, waiting for the right time to act – that timing is near.”
Overall, PwC expects deal activity to increase this year – reaping “long-term gain” from “short-term pain.”
While it’s well known the M&A dropped off in a big way last year, PwC revealed something new in its latest report: The eastern world dominated M&A activity last year. In fact, “the east accounted for nearly half of the deals by value in 2013, or 
about 45%, while the west represented about 36%,” PwC wrote.
“Looking ahead, many western-based majors are still going to wait for commodity prices to stabilize, concentrating on cash costs, rationalizing their assets and trying to divest assets as a way to pay down debt and fund existing operations,” Gravelle said.
The rich and powerful from Russia and Kazakhstan in particular bought up assets while major mining companies such as Rio Tinto and Barrick were selling.
The biggest deal of 2013 was in Russia when Gavril Yushvaev and Zelimkhan Mutsoev purchased nearly half of Polyus Gold from billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.
