Cott Acquires Royal Crown Assets

On July 20, 2001, Cott Corporation completed the acquisition of certain assets from Royal Crown Company, Inc., a division of Cadbury Schweppes plc, including its retailer brand concentrate formulae and other proprietary intellectual property, a concentrate production facility and related assets and the Royal Crown International business. The purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$94 million. In connection with the acquisition, Cott completed a secured financing with a syndicate arranged by Lehman Brothers Inc.

Mark Halperin, Senior Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary of Cott Corporation worked on both the acquisition and the financing. The Goodmans LLP acquisition team was led by Stephen Bloom and the financing team was led by Mark Surchin. Mark Spiro assisted on both matters.

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP of Philadelphia, Pa., was lead outside counsel on the financing, with a team led by Jill Bronson and included Thi Phan, Scarlett Spence and Amy Horton, and provided local law assistance in connection with the acquisition, through a team led by Bill Clark, who was assisted by Howard Morse (anti-trust), Mark Migliaccio (corporate), Jim Scott (environmental), Norm St. Landau (intellectual property), Jo Ann Butler (employment and pensions) and Steve Hamilton (tax). Marcus Calhoun and Robert McKenna of Page Scranton Sprouse Tucker & Ford LLP in Columbus, Georgia acted as local real estate counsel in connection with the acquisition and the financing. Mendelsohn Rosentzveig Shacter’s Judie Jokinen assisted on Quebec matters.

Bruce Futterer, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel for Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. and Jim Urmin, counsel for Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., worked with a team from the New York office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP led by Charles Engros that included Jean Sampson and Paula Collins (corporate), Chester Lee and Frank Cartolano (real estate), Joe McDonald (tax), Jessica Cohen (intellectual property) and Judy Walkoff and Michele Martin (envionmental).

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Hartwell Hylton and Alison Slater acted as lead counsel for Lehman Brothers Inc., with Canadian advice provided by Stikeman Elliott’s Marie Garneau and Wesley Ng in Toronto and Natalie Gosselin in Montreal.