In the first transatlantic merger to make headlines so far in 2017, Kirkland & Ellis partners David Holdsworth and Paula Riedel have lined up opposite their old firm Linklaters on Reckitt Benckiser (RB)’s $16.7bn takeover of Mead Johnson & Company.
Kirkland fielded a transatlantic team to advise US-based Mead Johnson, the baby formula manufacturer, which had sales of $3.7bn in 2016. Mead and RB confirmed the deal on 10 February, which should complete in the third quarter of 2017.
In the UK, corporate partner Holdsworth acted for Mead alongside finance partner Neel Sachdev and competition partner Riedel. The US side was advised by New York corporate partners Daniel Wolf and Willard Boothby.
Slough-headquartered RB, which had total revenue of £8.9bn in 2015, will buy the baby food company for $90 a share. RB is best known as a consumer goods company, with brand names including Dettol and Durex.
Linklaters and Davis Polk & Wardwell advised RB on its acquisition. Davis Polk led on US aspects, the New York office fielding corporate partner John Amorosi and Harold Birnbaum while tax partner Michael Mollerus also advised.
In London, Linklaters’ team was led by corporate partners Sarah Wiggins and William Buckley. Wiggins spent some time last year as interim general counsel (GC) of RB as the firm searched for a successor to former GC Bill Mordan, before it hired BP’s group GC Rupert Bondy in October.
Holdsworth arrived at Kirkland in November 2016. His move followed the departure of UK competition head Riedel in late 2015. Former Linklaters Nordic head of private equity, Roger Johnson, also made the move to Kirkland in 2015 along with former real estate M&A head Matthew Elliott.
Holdsworth told Legal Business: ‘It’s great that my Kirkland career has kicked off with the largest UK-US deal of the year so far and a pleasure to work with the cross-border, cross-practice Kirkland team on this.’
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk