The Firm recently represented the underwriters, led by Barclays Capital, BBVA Securities, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities, HSBC, RBS and Société Générale, in the public offering of $9.5 billion of debt securities of Kraft Foods Inc. (“Kraft”), consisting of $1 billion of 2.625% Senior Notes due 2013, $1.75 billion of 4.125% Senior Notes due 2016, $3.75 billion of 5.375% Senior Notes due 2020 and $3 billion of 6.500% Senior Notes due 2040.
On February 2, 2010, Kraft announced that its offer to acquire all of the issued and to be issued share capital of Cadbury plc (“Cadbury”) had been declared unconditional. Kraft will use the net proceeds from the debt offering to finance its acquisition of Cadbury.
Kraft is the world’s second largest food company with revenues of $41.9 billion. Cadbury is an international confectionary business with revenues of £5.4 billion. The acquisition of Cadbury will combine iconic Kraft brands such as Kraft, Oreo, Nabisco and LU with Cadbury’s portfolio of confectionary brands, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, Halls and Trident.
The Simpson Thacher team for the transaction included Andy Keller, Patrick Baron, Brian Rosenzweig, Chad Pearlman and Ariana Cooper (Capital Markets – New York), Ken Barry and Brad Wilson (Capital Markets – London), Greg Grogan (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits), Jonathan Cantor and Jennifer Klein (Tax), Jennie Getsin (Blue Sky) and paralegal Mike Riordan.