Rank Acquires Alcoa's Packaging and Consumer Business

On February 29, 2008, Rank Group Limited, a company controlled by New Zealand's Graeme Hart, completed its US$2.7 billion acquisition of Alcoa Inc.'s packaging and consumer business, which has approximately 10,000 employees in 23 countries and is involved in the design, manufacture, and marketing of a wide range of packaging products for a variety of end markets, including plastic and aluminum beverage and food closures, aluminum foil, plastic wraps and bags, flexible packaging products, thermoformed plastic containers, and extruded plastic sheet and film.

In Canada, Rank was advised by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP with a team that included Jason Gudofsky and Greg Sullivan (competition), Gail Lilley, Philippe Décary, Kurt Sarno, Alex MacMillan and Adrienne Sum (M&A), David MacLachlan and Katherine Girard (financial services), Caroline Helbronner, Natalie Bussière and Jessica Bullock (pensions & benefits), Connie Reeve and Katie Armitage (labour & employment) and Andrew Spiro (tax).

Rank was represented internally by Helen Golding, Robert Bailey, Cindi Lefari, Stephen Mihaljevic, Phillip West, Sally Snow, Liz Davies and Emily Kossew; and externally by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on antitrust matters with a team led by partner Thomas Wessely who was assisted by associates Jon Midthjell, Angeline Woods, Sally Southwell and Ben Graham; and by Debevoise & Plimpton LLP on M&A matters with a team led by partners Jeffrey J. Rosen and Kevin M. Schmidt and that included partners David A. Brittenham, Alan J. Davies, Peter J. Loughran, David H. Schnabel, James C. Scoville and Elizabeth Pagel Serebransky, counsel Stuart Hammer and Charles E. Wachsstock, and M&A associates Chandra J. Mitchell and Molly F. Stockley, executive compensation associate William C. Mulvey, finance associates Nathan Parker, David W. Wicklund and Edwin Northover, intellectual property associates Dagmar Tricot and Lisa A. Schwartz, real estate associate Marc N. Lieberman and tax associate Michael Bolotin.

Alcoa was represented internally by Max Laun, Claire Miller, Aman Bhullar, Arisa Tinaves and Nick Oliver, and externally by Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP on M&A matters with a team led by partners Thomas E. Dunn and Scott A. Barshay and that included associates Johnny G. Skumpija and Aaron Gruber on corporate matters, partner Stephen L. Gordon and associate Christian Brause on tax matters, associates Jennifer S. Conway and Ali U. Nardali on benefits matters, senior associate Gregory J. Battista on environmental matters, and senior associate Martin R. Levin and associate Joyce Law on real estate matters.

In Canada, Alcoa was advised by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team that included Susan M. Hutton and Kim D.G. Alexander-Cook (competition), Samantha Horn and Kevin Kyte (M&A), Michel Legendre (pensions & benefits), Alan Kenigsberg and Jean-Guillaume Shooner (tax), Larry Cobb (environmental), Lorna Cuthbert, Hélène Bussières and Janice Campbell (labour & employment), and Savvas Kotsopoulos and Michéle Baillargeon (real estate).