Multiple firms advised on USD 1 billion Chemtura acquisition by Platform Specialty Products

Eversheds has acted as international counsel to Chemtura on the sale of its agrochemicals business Chemtura AgroSolutions to Platform Specialty Products Corporation, a global specialty chemicals company. Greenberg Traurig was the international leader for Platform Specialty Products, assisted by Noerr, among others. The sale consists of USD 950 million in cash and 2 million shares of Platform's common stock. The sale closed on 3 November 3.

Eversheds London office acted as the international counsel on the deal, which involved the sale of business units in 36 jurisdictions and a contract/asset portfolio covering over 120 countries.

The deal also involved the restructuring of business units in several jurisdictions, in addition to coordinating the transfer of a highly complex portfolio of business specific assets on/immediately following closing, including facilitating an intricate re-registration process with regulators of agro chemical product registrations in numerous jurisdictions. Transitional services and supply arrangements were also implemented to allow the new owners, Platform Specialty Products, to continue to operate the divested business following completion.

The Eversheds team was led by M&A partner Robin Johnson, working alongside Alan Murphy, managing partner of the Dublin office, partner Brett Rowland, and associates George Gray, Charlotte Chambers, Kayode Sodeinde, Emma Cassie and Chloe Chittock. Also involved were Eversheds lawyers Joanne Hyde in Dublin, Tom Bridgford and Richard Jones in the UK, Claudine Maeijer in the Netherlands, Oliver Beldi in Switzerland, and Riccardo Bianchini Riccardi in Italy. In addition, Brett Rowland, George Gray, Charlotte Chambers, and Emma Cassie were reportedly involved in obtaining third party consents from 1000 third parties and the re-registration process in over 100 countries.

Eversheds also co-ordinated closings in multiple jurisdictions in Latin America, Australia, East Asia, Central Asia and Africa working with firms like Jun He, Tozzini, Thomson Geer, Nagashima Ohno, Trilegal and Vizioli Triolo. In Slovenia, Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & partners’ Partner Bojan Sporar and Senior Associate Blaz Hrastnik advised on all aspects of Slovenian law, including a localized transfer agreement.

Noerr acted as Local Counsel to Platform Specialty Products for the German, Russian, and Ukrainian aspects of the transaction. The team’s work was led by corporate partners Tibor Fedke, Hans Radau, and the REACH specialist Martin Ahlhaus. Also involved were partners Christoph Spiering, Martin Ahlhaus, Barbel Sachs, Stefan Wolfgang Weber, Olga Mokhonko, and Maxim Vladimirov, and associates Katrin Andra, Robert Korndorfer, Andrea Petsch, Charlotte Sander, Maria Belova, Anna Fufurina, Ekaterina Kalinina, Vyacheslav Khayryuzov, Evgeny Letunovsky, Evgeny Lisin, Alexandr Silakov, and Anna Sorokina.

Advice on Ukrainian law was provided by cooperation partner Alexander Weigelt of TOV Nobles.

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