Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised two of the world’s largest beverage can makers on an acquisition worth £4.3bn as Rexam agreed an offer from Ball Corporation.
The acquisition continued the trend of US companies seeking investment opportunities in the UK, with leading British manufacturer Rexam, which boasts clients including Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Heineken, agreeing to be acquired by Colorado-based Ball Corporation for £4.3bn.
Ball, which generated £5.6bn in revenue in 2014, turned to a Skadden team on the deal including London partners Clive Wells in banking, Michael Hatchard for M&A, Scott Hopkins in corporate, and Tim Sanders in tax, alongside Chicago-based M&A partners Charles Mulaney and Shilpi Gupta, and banking partners Seth Jacobson and Lynn McGovern. The team was also supported by Hal Hicks in Washington for tax issues and Joseph Yaffe out of Palo Alto for executive compensation and benefit concerns.
Meanwhile, Slaughter and May picked up the mandate to provide EU competition advice to Ball with a team including partners John Boyce, Claire Jeffs and Jordan Ellison.
Freshfields acted for London-headquartered Rexham led by corporate partners David Sonter and Julian Long, and competition and antitrust partners John Davies and Martin McElwee, all based in the City. The company has 55 can making plants across 20 countries and in the year ending 31 December 2014 generated sales of £3.8bn.
Under the terms of the offer, Rexam ordinary shareholders will be receive 407 pence in cash for each share held and 0.04568 of a new Ball share.
Earlier this week, Shearman & Sterling; Slaughter and May; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Sullivan & Cromwell all landed roles advising on Canadian insurance group Fairfax’s £1.2bn takeover of specialty insurer Brit as the group looked to boost its presence in the City.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk
