Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier advises Sodiaal in connection with the acquisition by Sodiaal and Lactalis of General Mills North American yogurt business

Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier advised Sodiaal, the largest French dairy cooperative, in connection with the signing by Sodiaal and Lactalis of agreements to acquire the General Mills North American yogurt business for an aggregate value of approximately 2.1 billion USD.

Upon completion of its transaction, Sodiaal will acquire the Yoplait and Liberté business in Canada. Lactalis will on its side acquire the General Mills yogurt business in the U.S. and will use the Yoplait and Liberté brands in this territory under a new license agreement entered into with Yoplait and Liberté (replacing the existing license with General Mills). Sodiaal will remain the exclusive owner of the Yoplait and Liberté brands worldwide.

The Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier team on this transaction is led by Hugo Diener (partner) and Charlotte Ferran (counsel), with notably Florian Benard and Chaïmaa Hainoune on corporate and M&A aspects, Vincent Agulhon (partner) and Pierre Dabin on tax aspects, Didier Théophile (partner), Thomas Servières and Pauline Helly d’Angelin on antitrust aspects as well as Martin Lebeuf on financing aspects.

Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier acts as lead counsel for Sodiaal alongside Stikeman Elliott on Canadian aspects, Blake, Cassels & Graydon on regulatory aspects in Canada, Ropes and Gray on intellectual property aspects and PwC on Canadian tax aspects.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges acts as lead counsel for Lactalis and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton acts as lead counsel for General Mills.