February 2022
John Lawrie Metals
Canaccord Genuity acts as Financial Adviser to RubiconPartners on the sale of John Lawrie Metals to ArcelorMittal
Canaccord Genuity is pleased to announce that on 28 February 2022, John Lawrie Group (majority owned by Rubicon Partners) completed the sale of John Lawrie Metals to ArcelorMittal S.A (“ArcelorMittal”). Canaccord Genuity acted asexclusive sell-side financial adviser.
John Lawrie Metals is a Scottish recycling business with access to diversified sources of high-quality scrap steel from the UK’s oil and gas industry. The business was acquired by Rubicon Partners from the Meldrum family in 2017 and, under Rubicon’s ownership,has grown both organically and through acquisition, with a strategic focus on providing metal recycling services to the North Sea decommissioning market. The company sources around half its material from the oil and gas market; with decommissioning of oil and gas wells in the North Sea increasing due to the energy transition, supplies of scrap are expected to grow significantly over the next decade.
ArcelorMittal is a multinational steel manufacturing corporation and mining company, with a presence in 60 countries and primary steelmaking facilities in 17 countries. Increasing the use of scrap steel in both the electric arc furnace (EAF) and blast furnace routes of steelmaking, is one of the five keylevers of ArcelorMittal’s decarbonisation roadmap. The transaction represents an important step in ArcelorMittal’s strategic decarbonisation agenda in line with their target to reduce CO2 emissions from European operations by 35% by 2030, and for the global group to be net-zero by 2050.
The transaction reflected Canaccord Genuity’s deep and strong industry knowledge and relationships in the Business Services & Sustainability and Metals & Mining sectors as well as seamless collaboration between sector specialists to deliver a successful client outcome. The transaction demonstrates an initial move by a global steel group to pursue upstream scrap integration through acquisition, a trend that is expected to continue, with Canaccord Genuity able to leverage unique capabilities and track record to assist clients.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.