SAINT-GOBAIN EXPANDED ITS OPERATIONS IN MEXICO BY THE PURCHASING OF TWO MAJOR MEXICAN COMPANIES FOR USD 40 MILLION DOLLARS.
Mexico City, April 29th, 2019.- Basham Ringe y Correa, through the leadership of its Partners Juan Carlos Serra and Amilcar Peredo, assisted Saint-Gobain in expanding its operations in Mexico, by purchasing two major Mexican companies owning a production line of gypsum products and boards known as “Plaka” which included a complete diligence revision of the companies and their operations in México.
These Mexican companies are part of one of the biggest and most important international groups based in Germany well known for the production of drywall gypsum boards, building materials and construction systems comprising, among others, plasterboards, cement boards, mineral fibre acoustic boards. Purchased companies owned a production facility in the State of Queretaro and two mining queries from which gypsum is extracted and used to produce the corresponding boards.
The firm assisted Saint-Gobain throughout the whole purchase process, specifically in: (i) carrying out a complete due diligence for the target companies and their operations in México (which included matters such as, regulatory, tax, intellectual property, real estate, labour, corporate, contracts, among others) as to determine the good standing status of the companies, their assets and operations; (ii) design and implementation of the legal strategy to purchase the two Mexican entities, including all the assets required and owned by such entities to carry out the Plaka business in Mexico; and (iii) jointly with the purchased companies, to obtain authorization to clear the transaction from the Federal Antitrust Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica, for its acronym in Spanish).
The purchase of the Mexican entities included negotiations with the German company selling the entities, specifically in connection with the Share Purchase Agreement and all ancillary documents related to it.
The firm has been Saint-Gobain legal advisor for many additional operations related to its business and activities in Mexico, which has helped Saint-Gobain in settling and increasing its presence in the country.
This matter is of high relevance since it required the purchase or the target companies in a very short timeframe which implied that a very precise diligence revision had to be made on those companies, their assets and operations in México as to assess any risks related to their purchase and the post-closing actions that would need to be carried out by Saint-Gobain after acquiring same.
A precise and complex legal scheme had to be implemented as to acquire the companies and assess the liabilities that each company had but, mostly, to match the timeframes between the purchase and the filing to obtain authorization from the Federal Antitrust Commission to clear the operation, something that was of great relevance to Saint-Gobain and seller.
Other team members such as Jorge Vega, Jorge Escobedo, Ricardo Evangelista, Mariana Arrieta, Jorge Cobos, Jorge Campuzano, Luis Álvarez, Francisco Matus, Roberto Serralde, Elisa Sanguino, Rosalia Martínez, Julio Copo, José Massas.
Other firms involved in the transaction: Baker & Mckenzie, legal advisors to the German company selling the Mexican entities. Craig Roeder (United States).