Global law firm White & Case LLP advised Mexichem SAB de CV, a major Mexican chemical producer, on its US$300 million acquisition of the AlphaGary Plastic Compounding Business Division of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ROC). This is the second acquisition in which White & Case acted for Mexichem in less than a year.
AlphaGary is the largest division in Rockwood’s specialty compounds segment and manufactures specialty plastic compounds for the wire and cable business, as well as medical applications. Based in the United States, it also has facilities in Canada and Europe.
“With the acquisition, Mexichem will have the opportunity to gain geographic diversification and to apply new technology to growing markets in Latin America,” said Emilio J. Alvarez-Farré, White & Case M&A partner who led the deal.
The White & Case team worked closely with Mexichem’s inhouse legal team, led by Andrés Capdepon, general counsel of the company, and assisted by Guadalupe Rodríquez.
More than 30 White & Case lawyers from five offices – Miami, Mexico City, London, New York and Washington, DC – worked together to negotiate the transaction and take it from start to signing in less than four weeks.
Partner Sean Goldstein of the Mexico City office formed part of the core team that worked on the deal, which included the following partners: Noah A. Brumfield (Antitrust, Washington, DC), David Cox (Real Estate, London), Nicholas Greenacre (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits, London), Mark T. Hamilton (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits, New York), Pieta Menon (Tax, London), Daren Orzechowski (Intellectual Property, New York) and Edward E. Sawyer (Corporate, Miami). They were supported by counsels Albert Diaz-Silveira (Capital Markets, Miami), David Ernst (Antitrust, New York), Tallat Hussain (Project Finance, London), Tal Marnin (Tax, New York), Sally Martin (Real Estate, London) and Randall C. McGeorge (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits, New York) and associates Aracely Alicea (Corporate, Miami), Ibrahim Barakat (M&A, Miami), Laura L. Chang (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits, New York), Heather Clark (Litigation, New York), John Cunningham (Corporate, London), Krista DeCastro (Corporate, Miami), S. Lynn Diamond (Antitrust, New York), Guillermo J. Jover Cataldi (Project Finance, Miami), Victoria Landsbert (Real Estate, London), Cristina Arana Lumpkin (Environmental, Miami), Helen Mulligan (Corporate, London), Prabhu Narasimhan (Tax, London), Charmaine Pollock (Corporate, London), Robert Sartor (Corporate, London), Joseph Schenck (Intellectual Property, New York) and David S. Strelzyk-Herzog (Antitrust, Washington, DC).
