When Brian Gilbertson merged Billiton and BHP in 2001 to create the world’s largest mining company, it cemented his reputation as the sector’s dealmaker in chief.
Mr Gilbertson, 64, a brash and ambitious South African, introduced himself to London investors in 1997 when he floated Billiton, which had been spun out of the Gencor industrial conglomerate. The subsequent $28billion BHP Billiton deal was a boon for Billiton’s City investors, who got a generous share of the new company.
Billiton’s executives also found they had more control of the new company than had been expected, with Mr Gilbertson landing the chief executive’s job. But his desire to do another deal proved his undoing.
That proposal, a year later, was the takeover of Rio Tinto. The BHP