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Bell Gully advises Danone on Frucor sale
Bell Gully has advised Danone on the sale of its subsidiary drinks company Frucor to Suntory Limited.
On 23 October, Danone Asia Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of French food products company Groupe DANONE, announced that it had signed an agreement with the Japanese brewing and distilling company for the sale of Frucor for in excess of NZ$1.4 billion.
The announcement follows a highly contested auction for the company, which sells fruit juices, energy drinks, waters and soft drinks in New Zealand and Australia. The second largest non-alcoholic drinks company in New Zealand, Frucor brands include V energy drinks, Mizone sports drinks and h2go water.
Auckland corporate partners James Gibson, Anna Buchly and David Flacks led the Bell Gully team managing all of the vendor's legal requirements around the multi-bidder auction process run by Danone and its financial adviser, JP Morgan. This included conducting high level vendor due diligence, advising Danone on pre-sale legal issues on the extraction of the Frucor Group and the Frucor brands from the Danone Group, preparing the Sale and Purchase Agreement for parties to bid on and undertaking negotiations with various bidding parties to conclude final positions.
There was significant input across practice areas with Bell Gully experts also advising on competition law, intellectual property and tax issues.
