Brazilian firms TozziniFreire Advogados and Levy & Salomão Advogados have helped Switzerland’s Holcim and France’s Lafarge provide Brazil’s antitrust authority with details of the assets they plan to shed in order to clear a merger aimed at creating the world’s largest cement maker.
The two companies said on Monday that they planned to sell assets including three integrated cement plants and two grinding stations, as well as one ready-mix plant in southeastern Brazil. The proposed divestments were presented to CADE as pre-filing negotiations, and are now subject to further discussion before a final decision is reached.
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is providing lead US and European counsel to Lafarge for the merger, while Holcim is turning to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. Holcim is receiving additional assistance in Ecuador from Pérez Bustamante & Ponce.
The move in Brazil is part of a wider package of divestments aimed at responding to requests from antitrust regulators in 15 countries and the European Commission that Holcim and Lafarge lose assets worth some US$6.7 billion in annual revenue before the proposed merger, announced in April and aimed at creating a company with combined sales of US$44 billion, gets the green light. Last month the two companies said they would surrender assets worth US$4 billion, and while antitrust lawyers praised the companies for focusing on sell-offs in problematic markets, some were concerned the package may not be sufficient to appease the regulators.
Counsel to Lafarge
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Partners Antoine Winckler, Nicholas Levy and François-Charles Laprévote, and associates Niklas Maydell, Sven Frisch, Henry Mostyn and Charlotte Emin in Brussels, partner Mark Nelson, counsel Kathleen Bradish and associate Zuzanna Knypinski in Washington, DC, partner Murat Akuyev and associates Maxim Izvekov and Yury Babichev in Moscow, associates Esther Bitton, Victor Levy and Philippe Prigent in Paris, and associate Paul Gilbert in London.
Levy & Salomão Advogados
Partner Ana Paula Martinez in São Paulo
Counsel to Holcim
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Partners Frank Montag and Rafique Bachour, and associates Daniel Colgan, Foad Hoseinian, Babette Kacholdt and Saira Henry in Brussels, and partner Michael Han in Beijing, associates Donghao Cui, Alexander Viktorov and Olga Kovtunova in Moscow
TozziniFreire Advogados
Partner Marcelo Calliari in São Paulo
Pérez Bustamante & Ponce Abogados
Partner Diego Perez Ordonez in Quito
