Drinker Biddle Advises Cott Corporation on $1.25 Billion Transaction
Lawyers from our Corporate and Securities Group led a multidisciplinary team of lawyers and professionals across nine practice groups advising longtime firm client Cott Corporation, a leading North American and European beverage service provider, in the $1.25 billion sale of Cott’s carbonated soft drink and juice manufacturing business to Netherlands-based Refresco Group. The transaction closed in the first quarter of 2018. The sale represented a strategic shift for Cott away from sweetened carbonated drinks and toward a route-based services model facilitating delivery of bottled water, coffees, and teas to homes and businesses. The transaction also involved amending and restating Cott’s credit facility with JPMorgan Chase Bank, repayment of other senior indebtedness, a global tax reorganization, and restructuring the ownership of a significant trademark portfolio spanning 170 countries.
Cott retained its Water & Coffee Solutions business segment, including the DS Services, Eden Springs and Aquaterra water businesses, and S&D Coffee and Tea (each of which was acquired by Cott, with Drinker Biddle’s assistance, within the past three years), its Aimia Foods business in the U.K., and its RCI beverage concentrate manufacturing business.
The Drinker Biddle team included Corporate and Securities partners Jack Michel, Matt Meyers, Steve Hamilton and Eirik Tellefsen, and associates Adam Weinstock, Caroline Henry and Kyle Jaep.
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