Dow/Dupont wins Matter of the Year at GCR Awards 2018

The $130 billion Dow/Dupont merger has beat nominees including ChemChina/Syngenta and the Google Shopping investigation to win matter of the year at the GCR Awards 2018. 

Intel v Commission, UPS v Commission and Unwired Planet v Huawei were shortlisted alongside ChemChina/Syngenta, Dow/Dupont and the Google Shopping case for Matter of the Year.

Dow/DuPont ultimately scooped the prize. Dow Chemical’s US$130 billion merger of equals with DuPont implicated market concentrations across multiple business areas. As the third-largest merger of all time, it was subject to antitrust clearance in 24 jurisdictions. Clearance was particularly complex given the local differences between agricultural chemicals and seeds, which were the most significant global overlaps. Counsel sequenced regulatory approvals to minimise the commercial impact on the deal, and kept all jurisdictions moving ahead independently rather than deferring additional remedies – which was key to avoiding debilitating divestitures. The EU broke new ground with novel and aggressive theories of harm – particularly those related to innovation, which set the bar for other jurisdictions to investigate. Dow/Dupont was one of the first high-profile deals that CADE and Chile’s antitrust authorities had reviewed since they became suspensory merger control regimes. CADE cleared its clearance with divestiture remedies, and noted it was the “largest merger ever filed” with the Brazilian enforcer.

Oliver Bergers of McCarthy Tétrault, counsel to Dow; Dany Assaf of Torys, counsel to DuPont

Counsel to Dow

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Partners George Cary and Elaine Ewing in Washington, DC, partner Dirk Schroeder in Cologne, partner Christopher Cook in Brussels, senior attorney Lars-Peter Rudolf in Brussels, senior attorney Matthew Bachrack in Washington, DC, senior attorney Michael Mayr in Cologne, counsel Tilman Kuhn in Cologne, counsel Richard Pepper in Brussels, counsel Cunzhen Huang in Washington, DC, counsel David Little in London, associates Katharina Apel, Enno Ahlenstiel, Mathis Rust, Sylvia DeTar and Martin Malkus in Cologne, associates Esther Kelly, Emma Johansson, Silvia Branca, Patrick Clark, Sarah Taheny, Thilo-Maximilian Wienke, Anna Lubberger, Sujin Chan-Allen and Yiming Sun in Brussels, associates James Hunsberger, Andrew Kline, James Percival, Buddy Khan, William Segal, Linden Bernhardt, Paul Bolaji, Nicholas Peterson, Garrett Shinn and Bradley Justus (now at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider) in Washington, DC, associates Anita Ng and Peter Westerlind Wigstrom (now at Deacons) in Hong Kong, associate Alice Setari in Milan, associates Shin-Shin Hua and Xuyang Zhu in London, and legal consultant Milka Spahija in Brussels.

T&D Associates

Partner John Yong Ren in Beijing

Pinheiro Neto

Partner Renê Guilherme da Silva Medrado in Sao Paulo, senior associates Marco Aurélio Barbosa and Daniel Rebello in São Paulo, associates Alessandro Pezzolo Giacaglia and Luís Henrique Perroni Fernandes in São Paulo, and junior associates Renata Aguiar de Romeiro and Rafael Rossini Parisi in São Paulo

Creel

Partners Patricio Martínez and José Ruíz López in Mexico City

McCarthy Tétrault

Partner Oliver Borgers in Toronto and partner Rick Pawluk in Calgary, and associate Jonathan Bitran in Toronto

King & Wood Mallesons

Partner Lisa Huett in Melbourne

Dua Associates

Partners Kunal Mehra and Neeraj Kumar in New Delhi

Counsel to DuPont

In-house counsel Cornel Fuerer in Wilmington, Delware, and Alexandre Dip in São Paulo

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

Partners Clifford Aronson and Matthew Hendrickson in New York, partners Frederic Depoortere and Giorgio Motta in Brussels, counsel Andrew Foster in Hong Kong, counsel Thomas Pak in New York, and associate Elliot Silver in New York

Fangda Partners

Partners Michael Han and Vivian Cao in Beijing, and associate Tao Haiyan in Beijing and Lily Wu

Barbosa Müssnich Aragão

Partner Barbara Rosenberg in São Paulo, senior associates Sandra Terepins and Maria Amaral in São Paulo, and associate Guilherme Morgulis in São Paulo

González Calvillo

Partner Cristina Massa Sánchez in Mexico City

Torys

Partner Dany Assaf in Toronto, and associates Rebecca Moskowitz Wagner and Marina Chernenko in Toronto

Allens

Partner Jacqueline Downes in Sydney

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co

Partner Harman Singh Sandhu in New Delhi