Nippon Suisan (U.S.A.) Acquires Gorton's and BlueWater Seafoods

Nippon Suisan (U.S.A.), Inc. and its subsidiaries acquired the Gorton’s division of Conopco, Inc. and the BlueWater Seafoods division of UL Canada Inc., each subsidiaries of Unilever PLC, on October 1, 2001, for US$175 million, pursuant to an asset purchase agreement signed on August 16, 2001.

Nippon Suisan (U.S.A.) and BlueWater Seafoods were represented in Canada by a team from Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP comprised of Hillel Rosen and Laurence Detière (corporate), Nathan Boidman, Alan Shragie and Rhonda Rudick (tax) and Louise Patry (employment and labour relations); and in the U.S. by a team from Latham & Watkins led by Mary Ellen Kanoff and Alex Voxman in Los Angeles and included Julian Kleindorfer, Rebecca Kwok and Melissa Pifko (corporate), David Raab and Lisa Watts (tax) in New York, Kevin Murphy (environmental) in Chicago, DeAnne Ozaki (IP) and David Fong (real estate) in Los Angeles; and by Carla Bennett and David Gordon (employee benefits) and Fram Virjee (labour) in Los Angeles, and Peter Shinevar (employee benefits) in New York, all of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Brian Thompson served as financial advisor to Nippon Suisan (U.S.A.).

Conopco, Inc. and UL Canada Inc. were represented by Mark Greene, Peter Wilson, Daniel Seal, Effie Chao, Simone Boayue and Adam Forchheimer (corporate), Michael Schler and William Dixon (tax), Michael O’Brien and James Colliton (benefits), Gregory Battista (environmental) and John Gerhard (real estate) of Cravath Swaine & Moore in New York; and by in-house counsel Tony Radin (corporate) and Phil Cohen (tax). Morgan Stanley was financial advisor to Unilever.