Mallesons Stephen Jaques, for the second time this month, has gained top honours in Mergers & Acquisitions rankings.

This week’s CONNECT 4 2003 mid-year M&A legal survey positions Mallesons as the “front runners” in this highly competitive area of practice.

The significant increase in the level of mergers and acquisitions activity experienced in the Australian market place during 2002, has continued into 2003 with 41 deals announced for the six months to 30 June. Mallesons’ 10 deals in the first half of 2003, valued at $10,495 million, secured the top spot for the firm in the CONNECT 4 league table.

CONNECT 4 monitors all “On-Market” activity where the target is a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Tony Bancroft, Mallesons’ head of mergers and acquisitions, said the firm’s top deals included Xstrata’s takeover of resources giant MIM, which was worth $5.3 billion, and the $6.8 billion CSR-Rinker Group demerger. CONNECT 4’s breakdown of the top 10 Australian deals announced sees the Xstrata cash bid for MIM as the most significant deal announced in the first half of 2003.

“We are currently very busy right across the M&A practice and pleased to have been involved in the most significant deals to date this year. We are looking forward to a continuation of this high level of activity with an equally buoyant second half.

“We thank our clients for their ongoing confidence in us and we will continue our strong commitment to providing high quality corporate and M&A advice across the breadth of jurisdictions throughout Asia Pacific.”

This month Mallesons was also ranked number one in Thomson Financial’s survey of leading M&A firms in Australia and New Zealand.