Liberty Industries France S.A.S. made a binding offer to acquire Aluminium Dunkerque from Rio Tinto plc for $500 million on January 10, 2018. The purchase price is subject to final adjustments. Liberty has been supported by a syndicate of international banks led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch with a $350 million term loan facility. The acquisition of the plant to be renamed as Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque. Aluminium Dunkerque has annual turnover is around €500 million ($600.4 million). The deal is subject to satisfactory completion of consultations. On June 26, 2018, the EU Commission was notified on the transaction. The provisional deadline by the EU Commission is July 31, 2018. As of July 18, 2018, EU Commission had approved the transaction. Rio Tinto expects to complete the sale of Aluminium Dunkerque in the second quarter of 2018. Lazard Ltd acted as financial advisor for GFG Alliance. Olivier Genevois, Cécile Bayle, Margaux Fontan, Emmanuelle van den Broucke, Emmanuelle De Schepper, Morgane Ferron, Paul Sautier, Patrick Tobin, Sandrine Cahn, Agnès Chenue, Donald Seberger, Thérèse Lê-Eludut and Elsa Gambardella-Poli of Dentons Europe, Association d'Avocats à Responsabilité Professionnelle Individuelle acted as legal advisors to Rio Tinto. Anne-Laure Drouet and Alexandre Perron of Ernst & Young Société d'Avocats, Legal Advisory Arm acted as legal advisors to Rio Tinto. Karine Audouze and Nicolas Peixoto of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. acted as legal advisors to Rio Tinto. Frédérique Chaillou, Sidonie Fraîche-Dupeyrat and Sarah Becker of LPA-CGR Avocats acted as legal advisor to Rio Tinto. Richard Elks, Simon Vere Nicoll, Jean-Michel Reversac, Richard Turner, Carolyn Kelly, Will Rowling and James Richard of Clyde & Co LLP acted as legal advisors to Liberty House Limited. Romain Pichot and Maxence Manzo of Cazals Manzo Pichot acted as legal advisors to Liberty House Limited. Jean-Baptiste Julié of Fimapro acted as consultant in the deal. Christine Ezcutari, Alexandre Roth and Alexis Babin de Lignac of Norton Rose acted as legal advisors to Liberty House Limited. Greg Brown, Catherine Lang-Anderson, Lucy Newton, Philip Engel, Adrian Mellor and Alexia Drouet of Allen & Overy acted as advisors to the bankers. Liberty Industries France S.A.S. completed the acquisition of Aluminium Dunkerque from Rio Tinto plc (LSE:RIO) on December 14, 2018. Liberty will continue operations at the smelter and has announced plans for the development of additional activity around the site. The proceeds from the sale will be returned to shareholders. Rio Tinto estimates that there will be no material tax payable on this transaction.