Key transactions & industry newsWeekly Update 05/22/2026

What We Found Interesting This Week

May 18, 2026 – Anglo American plc (LSE:AAL) agreed to sell its Australian steelmaking coal portfolio to Dhilmar Limited, a privately held UK⁠-⁠registered mining company, for up to $3.9B comprising $2.3B upfront and a price⁠-⁠linked earnout of up to $1.6B over five years, completing Anglo’s exit from steelmaking coal ahead of its merger with Teck Resources. (WSJ)


Anglo American’s sale of its Australian steelmaking coal portfolio to Dhilmar Limited for up to $3.9B, structured as $2.3B upfront and a price⁠-⁠linked earnout of up to $1.6B over five years, completes the company’s full exit from steelmaking coal and clears the path for its merger with Teck Resources without a major legacy commodity position complicating the combination. Dhilmar is a relatively unknown name at this scale, a privately held UK-registered vehicle absorbing a portfolio that major listed miners have been under consistent pressure to divest, and the opacity around its backing suggests either significant private capital behind it or a structure that has not been fully surfaced publicly. For Anglo, the disposal is the final piece of a multi⁠-⁠year portfolio simplification, concentrating the business around copper, iron ore, and diamonds ahead of the Teck combination, where adding another major mining platform makes far more sense with a clean, focused asset base than with a steelmaking coal tail attached. The broader pattern here mirrors what is happening across the listed mining sector, with ESG-driven exit pressure pushing thermal and metallurgical coal assets steadily into private hands where long-duration commodity exposure and quarterly investor scrutiny do not coexist.

Recent M&A Transactions

Metals & Mining

May 20, 2026 – Wynnchurch Capital, L.P. has announced the sale of Ironform Holdings Co., a Chicago-based metal fabricator supplying components, and value-added assemblies to the agriculture, construction, off-highway, bus, and industrial end markets with facilities in Texas, Washington, Virginia, and Missouri, to an undisclosed strategic buyer. (Wynnchurch)

May 19, 2026 – ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) sold approximately 23.9 million shares in Vallourec (ENXTPA:VK), or about 10% of share capital, at $28 per share via an accelerated bookbuild, raising $667M to fund its ongoing share buyback programme while retaining a 17.3% stake and one Board seat subject to a 90-day lock-up. (WSJ)

May 18, 2026 – Anglo American plc (LSE:AAL) agreed to sell its Australian steelmaking coal portfolio to Dhilmar Limited, a privately held UK-registered mining company, for up to $3.9B comprising $2.3B upfront and a price-linked earnout of up to $1.6B over five years, completing Anglo’s exit from steelmaking coal ahead of its merger with Teck Resources. (WSJ)

May 18, 2026 – EMS, a value-added distributor of aluminum products and portfolio company of Wynnchurch Capital, L.P., has acquired American Metals Supply, a Tampa, Florida-based distributor of aluminum products serving residential, commercial, patio, and industrial end markets, marking EMS’s seventh acquisition since Wynnchurch’s October 2019 investment and expanding the platform’s geographic reach across the United States. (Wynnchurch)

Transportation & Logistics

May 20, 2026 – Tallvine Partners Management LP, a Miami-based independent investment advisor focused on value-add middle-market infrastructure opportunities, has acquired Lind Marine, LLC, a San Francisco-based provider of critical marine infrastructure solutions including dredging, towing, salvage, shipyard, and environmental remediation services across the San Francisco Bay, from Kingswood Capital Management, LP, Seneca Partners, Christian Lind and Aaron Lind. (BusinessWire)

Building Products & Materials

May 19, 2026 – Installed Building Products, Inc. (NYSE:IBP), an industry-leading installer of insulation and complementary building products, announced the acquisition of Diamond Energy Systems, Inc., a St. Joseph, Minnesota-based mechanical insulation specialist deriving the majority of its sales from industrial and commercial retrofit work, adding approximately $12M of annual revenue and expanding IBP’s mechanical insulation offerings throughout the Upper Midwest region, bringing IBP’s year-to-date 2026 acquired annualized revenue to approximately $40M. (YahooFinance)

Energy

May 19, 2026 – Hull Street Energy, LLC, a leading, power-focused U.S. investment firm, has signed an agreement to acquire FirstLight USA, LLC from the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. The transaction includes a portfolio of nearly 1,400 MW of clean, reliable generation in the Northeast, including Northfield Mountain, a 1,168 MW pumped storage hydro facility in Massachusetts that is the largest energy storage facility in New England. The proposed acquisition also includes 14 hydroelectric stations located in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and three operational solar and battery facilities in the Northeast. (PRNewswire)

May 19, 2026 – New West Data Corp., North America’s first vertically integrated oil and gas producer and off-grid digital infrastructure operator, has signed a Letter of Intent with Azimuth Capital Management to acquire Entrada Resources Inc., purchasing all of the shares of Entrada and adding a concentrated, high-quality oil and gas production asset base of 3,500 BOE/d near Rocky Mountain House in Central Alberta with stranded natural gas capacity to power an additional 20 MW of off-grid compute. (GlobeNewswire)

May 18, 2026 – NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) will acquire Dominion Energy, Inc. (NYSE:D) for $66.8B, creating the world’s largest regulated electric utility by market value, with NextEra shareholders owning approximately 74.5% and Dominion shareholders 25.5% of the combined company that will serve around 10 million utility customers across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina amid surging electricity demand from data centers fueling the AI boom. (NBCNews)

Others

May 19, 2026 – Blue Owl Capital (NYSE:OWL) co-founder Doug Ostrover is selling his remaining stake in the NFL’s Washington Commanders back to the Josh Harris-led ownership group three years after joining the consortium that paid over $6B for the team in 2023, with the exit coming as Blue Owl shares have fallen more than 60% from a January 2025 high amid private credit market pressure. (WSJ)

May 18, 2026 – Publicis Groupe (ENXTPA:PUB) agreed to acquire LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) for $38.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.2B enterprise value and $2.55B equity value, a 29.8% premium to LiveRamp’s prior-day close, building Publicis’s agentic AI capabilities across LiveRamp’s 25,000+ publisher domains and 500+ technology and data partners. (WSJ)

Top News Stories

Metals & Mining

CHALCO tightens Guinea grip with high-stakes alumina expansion deal. Aluminum Corporation of China (CHALCO), through its Hong Kong-listed Unit, and its partnering mining company and port company have signed an agreement to amend and restart the Mining Convention with the Guinean Government.

European Union adds safeguard to U.S. trade pact over aluminum and steel tariffs. The European Union has reached a provisional agreement to implement a trade pact with the United States, a move aimed at avoiding tariff increases from the U.S. and easing uncertainty around transatlantic trade, including aluminium and steel.

Novelis Oswego hot mill set to restart weeks ahead of schedule after 2025 fires. Novelis said the hot mill at its Oswego plant in New York is expected to resume production within the next few weeks following recovery work after two major fires in 2025.

European Commission considers tighter controls on alumina exports linked to Russia. The European Commission is preparing tighter restrictions on goods that could support Russia’s military production, amid growing pressure within the European Union to curb alumina exports linked to the Russian defense sector.

Greece ministry & Metlen’s ~$350M gallium push to cut EU import reliance. The Interministerial Committee for Strategic Investments of the Hellenic Republic has approved a new strategic investment by METLEN Energy & Metals in the ramp-up of gallium production capacity in Greece.

Vietnam enters the global scrap race with tax incentives and recycling ambitions in focus. As global scrap trade routes keep changing, Vietnam is trying to position itself as the next big destination for aluminum and copper recycling. But while the country is offering tax benefits and financial support to attract investors, many traders and recyclers still believe the market is not fully ready.

Transportation & Logistics

UP CEO confident rail merger application checks all the STB’s boxes. Union Pacific Chief Executive Jim Vena is confident that the Surface Transportation Board will accept the revised UP-Norfolk Southern merger application because it answers all of the questions regulators had about the initial filing that was deemed incomplete.

Quarterly loss for Zim ahead of Hapag-Lloyd takeover. ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. said it carried less cargo than a year ago as weak demand sent it to a loss in the first quarter. The Israeli liner (NYSE:ZIM), which is set to be acquired by Hapag-Lloyd of Germany, posted a net loss of $86M compared to net income of $296M in the first quarter of 2025.

Transportation bill sets $240B for major modes. The text of the massive federal surface transportation bill, branded as the BUILD America 250 Act, was released by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, formally known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, in total allocates $674B in core reauthorization, with $240B in authorized and direct funding for services and infrastructure across trucking, rail, aviation, and ports.

STG Logistics receives court approval of plan of reorganization, clearing path to emergence. STG Logistics Inc., one of the nation’s largest providers of integrated port-to-door services and supply chain solutions for cargo owners and logistics providers, today announced that the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey has approved the Company’s Plan of Reorganization, marking a significant milestone toward the completion of its chapter 11 process in the coming weeks.

Energy

Devon Energy dominates record $4B U.S. government oil and gas auction. Devon Energy accounted for more than half of a record $4B sale of oil and ​gas drilling rights on federal lands in New Mexico and ‌Texas held by the Trump administration, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

SoftBank-backed SB Energy confidentially files for U.S. IPO. Power infrastructure firm SB Energy has confidentially filed for an ​initial public offering in the United ‌States, seeking to tap buoyant investor demand for new listings.

Oil prices slide after Trump says U.S.-Iran negotiations in ‘final stages’. Oil prices fell about ​6% after U.S. President Donald Trump said that negotiations with Iran were in the final stages, although investors remained ‌wary about the outcome of peace talks as disruption to Middle Eastern supply continued.

Tankers exit Strait of Hormuz with 6 million barrels of crude oil. Three supertankers were crossing the Strait of Hormuz carrying oil bound for Asian markets, after ​waiting in the Gulf for more than two months with 6 million barrels of Middle East crude on board, while another was entering, ‌shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed.

Others

Trump picked Warsh to cut rates. markets are bracing for the opposite. Kevin Warsh is sworn in as Fed chair at the White House, with inflation rising and the bond market signaling a possible rate hike

SpaceX fires starting gun on Its blockbuster IPO. The Elon Musk-led company is poised to raise tens of billions of dollars in public-market debut. SpaceX revealed new details about its financials and how Chief Executive Elon Musk will try to grow a sprawling enterprise dedicated to advancing cutting-edge technologies in space and back on Earth.

Nvidia rides blistering chip sales to another record quarter. Chip giant Nvidia reported record sales and income, driven by surging demand for data-center computing and the astronomical rise of artificial-intelligence agents.

About RJM

RJM & Company is a specialized M&A and capital markets advisory investment bank. We provide boards and management teams of public and private companies with independent advice and expertise in a variety of sectors including road, rail and marine transportation, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, metals and mining, manufacturing, building materials, and other coverage areas of the industrial complex. RJM advises clients on all aspects of transactions including timing, structure, and pricing. RJM originates opportunities and helps negotiate and execute transactions already under evaluation.

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