Weil Gotshal advises Lion Capital on its disposal of Kettle Foods Group

Press Release

Weil, Gotshal & Manges has advised its long-standing private equity client Lion Capital on its sale of all UK and US operations of the Kettle Foods Group to Diamond Foods, Inc, the leading packaged food company, for $615 million in cash.

Lyndon Lea, Partner of Lion Capital, said “Our successful ownership of Kettle Foods reflects Lion’s distinctive strategy of investing in and growing strong consumer brands. Since our acquisition in 2006, we have dramatically increased Kettle’s strategic value through category-leading innovation and penetration gains in the US and UK snacking markets, leading to double-digit annualised growth in group revenues and 30% annualised growth in group profitability.”

The Weil, Gotshal & Manges London team was led by Andrew McLean and Mike Francies, assisted by partners Barry Fishley (IP), Sarah Priestley and Brenda Coleman (tax), Michael Nicklin (finance), Peter Schwartz (capital markets), Doug Nave (competition) and associates Oliver Williams, Simon Saitowitz, Georgina Wilson, Nathan Lorenzo-George, Alicia Speake, Hoyoon Nam, Juliette Enser and Vijay Sangwan. The US team included Scott Parel, Richard Ginsburg, Yossie Horwitz, Marianna Lopez, Steven Newborn, John Scribner and Katherine Ambrogi.

Diamond Foods was represented by A&O (Gillian Holgate) and Fenwick & West (Lynda Twomey).

This is the fourth private equity transaction that the Weil Gotshal London team has signed or completed since the beginning of 2010. The others were advising:

* Advent International on its acquisition of Xafinity; 

* Home Delivery Network Limited on the acquisition of DHL Domestic; and

* new client, Teachers’ Private Capital, on its purchase of Acorn Care and Education Limited.

About Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an international law firm of over 1,300 lawyers, including approximately 300 partners. Weil, Gotshal is headquartered in New York, with offices in Beijing, Boston, Budapest, Dallas, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Prague, Providence, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Warsaw, Washington, D.C. and Wilmington.

Read the article of  The Press Association