Barclays Capital and Royal Bank of Scotland have emerged as backers of Xstrata's $14.6bn (€11.4bn) hostile takeover bid for Canadian mining group Falconbridge. The two banks, alongside Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, are providing $11bn worth of debt facilities to help fund the deal.

Switzerland's Xstrata is being advised by Deutsche, JP Morgan Cazenove and Canadian bank TD Securities on the cash offer, which values Falconbridge at C$20bn (€14bn) and trumps an agreed bid for Falconbridge worth C$19.6bn from rival mining group Inco.