Slaughters, CC act on €805m Unilever sell-off as M&A revival continues
Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance (CC) have won lead roles on the €805m (£677m) sale of Unilever's Italian frozen food business. The deal, which was announced earlier this week (19 July), will see Birds Eye Iglo acquire the Findus Italy business from its current owner Unilever, with Slaughters acting for the seller and CC winning the buyer's instruction. Slaughters' Italian 'best friend' firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo took the main local law role with the two firms advising the clients as an integrated team.
July 23, 2010 at 07:46 AM
2 minute read
Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance (CC) have won lead roles on the €805m (£677m) sale of Unilever's Italian frozen food business.
The deal, which was announced earlier this week (19 July), will see Birds Eye Iglo acquire the Findus Italy business from its current owner Unilever, with Slaughters acting for the seller and CC winning the buyer's instruction.
Slaughters' Italian 'best friend' firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo took the main local law role with the two firms advising the clients as an integrated team.
Stephenson Harwood also took a role advising Birds Eye Iglo with a City-based team including corporate partner Andrew Edge, intellectual property partner Eifion Morris and banking partner David Lacey.
The transaction reunites the two former Unilever Frozen foods businesses which were separated in 2006, with the sale of the Birds Eye and Iglo businesses to private equity house Permira.
Unilever is a longstanding client of Slaughters, which floated a team led by City corporate partner Gary Eaborn on the deal, while Milan-based M&A partner Umberto Nicodano acted as lead partner for Bonelli. London-based M&A partner Joel Ziff led the CC team.
Permira-owned Birds Eye Iglo competed for the purchase with Lion Capital, after the buyout house also made a bid in the run-up to the deal. The private equity firm instructed its usual adviser Weil Gotshal & Manges on the failed bid, with London office head Mike Francies the lead partner.
Slaughters also advised Unilever on a major M&A deal last year when the company bought the personal care division of Sara Lee – including brands such as Radox and Brylcreem – in a €1.3bn (£1.1bn) deal which saw Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised the seller.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Kirkland, Macfarlanes Act as Evelyn Partners Offloads £700M Professional Services Arm
2 minute read
Elon Musk Taps UK Top 50 Firm for London Launch of AI Business
Trending Stories
- 1Supreme Court Takes Up Challenge to ACA Task Force
- 2'Tragedy of Unspeakable Proportions:' Could Edison, DWP, Face Lawsuits Over LA Wildfires?
- 3Meta Pulls Plug on DEI Programs
- 4On the Move and After Hours: Meyner and Landis; Cooper Levenson; Ogletree Deakins; Saiber
- 5State Budget Proposal Includes More Money for Courts—for Now
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
