Shearman & Sterling represented Barclays Capital Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, as joint bookrunning managers, in connection with a Rule 144A/Regulation S offering of $625 million aggregate principal amount of 6.75% Senior Notes due 2020 of Cott Beverages Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cott Corporation. The offering was used to finance Cott Corporation’s acquisition of DSS Group, Inc., parent company of DS Services of America, Inc., a leading water and coffee direct-to-consumer services provider in the United States.
Cott Corporation is one of the world's largest producers of beverages on behalf of retailers, brand owners and distributors, marketing or supplying over 500 retail, licensed and proprietary brands in North America, the United Kingdom and Mexico. The acquisition will expand Cott Corporation’s product and channel lines to include home and office bottled water delivery services, office coffee services, and filtration services and provide it with new packaging formats, in addition to creating cost and revenue synergies.
The Shearman & Sterling team included partners Jason Lehner (Toronto/New York-Capital Markets) and Laurence Crouch (Palo Alto-Tax); counsel Jeffrey Salinger (New York-Environmental); and associates Kevin Roggow (Toronto-Capital Markets), Bilal Choksi (Toronto-Capital Markets) and Alice Townes (Palo Alto-Tax).