Law firm Eversheds has acted as international counsel to Chemtura on the sale of its agrochemicals business Chemtura AgroSolutions, to Platform Specialty Products Corporation, a global specialty chemicals company. The sale consists of $950 million in cash and 2 million shares of Platform’s common stock.
The sale, which is a result of Chemtura’s objective to transform the business into a leading industrial chemicals specialist, completed on 3 November 2014.
Eversheds London office acted as the international counsel on the deal, which involved the sale of business units in 36 jurisdictions and a contract/asset portfolio covering over 120 countries. Chemtura were given access to local specialists across the firm’s international network, with teams working collaboratively to deliver a seamless transaction. Eversheds renowned project management approach was used to the full on this transaction.
The deal also involved the restructuring of business units in several jurisdictions, in addition to coordinating the transfer of a highly complex portfolio of business specific assets on/immediately following closing, including facilitating an intricate re-registration process with regulators of agro chemical product registrations in numerous jurisdictions. Bespoke transitional services and supply arrangements were also implemented to allow new owners, Platform Specialty Products Corporation, to continue to operate the divested business following completion.
The Eversheds team was led by M&A partner, Robin Johnson, working alongside Alan Murphy, Managing Partner for the Dublin office, Partner Brett Rowland, Associates George Gray, Charlotte Chambers, Kayode Sodeinde, Emma Cassie and Chloe Chittock. Joanne Hyde out of Eversheds Dublin coordinated a series of very complex employee transfers in many countries. Tom Bridgford and Richard Jones in Eversheds UK produced and negotiated individual supply arrangements in seven countries including Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada. Claudine Maeijer – Eversheds Netherlands office, Oliver Beldi – Eversheds Swiss office, Riccardo Bianchini Riccardi in Eversheds Italian office all had significant roles. Brett Rowland, George Gray, Charlotte Chambers and Emma Cassie were specifically involved in obtaining third party consents from 1000 third parties and the re-registration process in over 100 countries.
In addition to Eversheds offices, Eversheds also co-ordinated closings in multiple jurisdictions in Latin America, Australasia, East Asia, Central Asia and Africa working with firms like Jun He, Tozzini, Thomson Geer, Nagashima Ohno, Trilegal and Vizioli Triolo to name a few.
The local completion took over 24 hours to complete starting in Australia and ending in Latin America.
Robin Johnson commented:
“Our ability to provide quality legal advice and coordinate complex transactions across a number of jurisdictions, demonstrates the firm’s technical and international capabilities. Our use of bespoke tracking systems was essential to complete this 100 plus jurisdiction at closing of asset and share deals. Building on previous transactions we developed tools with lawyers around the world dealing with transfers and consents of all tangible and intangible assets. During the 15 month project we came up with solutions to get round issues that were raised working constructively with Platform and its advisors. By communicating on a daily basis with a number of work streams we were able to achieve the separation of the CAS business smoothly and on time.”
Billie S. Flaherty, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Chemtura, commented:
“The sale of Chemtura’s agrochemicals business was a complex cross-border transaction. Eversheds provided strong international legal support from start to finish, and Chemtura was particularly impressed with the level of process planning, process tools, and tightly coordinated execution that Eversheds brought to the successful completion of this transaction.”
Source: press.eversheds.com
