Groupe Danone Acquires Sparkling Spring

Paris-based Groupe Danone, through its Canadian subsidiary Danone Waters of North America, purchased all the shares of Sparkling Spring Water Holdings Limited, a Nova Scotia company, for an undisclosed purchase price on January 27, 2003. The transaction was announced in November 2002 when a share purchase agreement was executed among the parties. Due to the size of the transaction and the parties, it was subject to regulatory approvals in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., the last of which was received in January 2003. JP Morgan acted as financial advisor to Sparkling Spring and Lehman Brothers advised Group Danone.

Groupe Danone was represented in Canada, by Ogilvy Renault with a team led by Bogdan Teofilovici, and including Adam Walsh and Jane Son (corporate), Brian Facey, Dany Assaf and Eric Reither (competition and foreign investment), Ken Snider and John Leopardi (tax), Martin Rochette (pensions/benefits), Jean Piette (environment) and Anne Gallop (labour/ employment); in the U.S., by Shearman & Sterling in New York, with a team led by Clare O’Brien and including Alessandro de Giorgis, Lyle Ayes and Lauren Kleinberg; and in the U.K., by Nicholas Spearing and Salim Gunny of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Sparkling Spring was represented by Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales, with a team led by Larry Stordy and including Mark Bursey, Andrew Clark, Ian Sutherland and Corinne Boudreau.