DEAL OF THE YEAR
Cnooc’s $18.2 billion acquisition of Nexen
Advisers BMO Capital Markets, Citi, Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets
Legal advisers Stikeman Elliott Davis Polk Wardwell Blake Cassels Graydon Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton Garrison
Cnooc’s acquisition of Canadian company Nexen had always seemed like a long shot. The Chinese company had been evaluating potential targets since 2005 and ran the slide rule over the Toronto-listed Nexen for a considerable period of time starting from 2009.
It finally started negotiations in 2012 but, given the number of approvals that were required, it was not until early this year that...