Attorneys from our corporate and securities group led a multidisciplinary team of attorneys and professionals across nine practice groups advising longtime firm client Primo Water Corporation (previously known as Cott Corporation), a leading North American and European beverage service provider, in the $1.25 billion sale of its 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 Primo 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 Primo'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.
Primo 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 Primo, with our firm’s assistance, within the prior three years), its Aimia Foods business in the U.K. and its RCI beverage concentrate manufacturing business.
