DS Smith / Europac Merger Cleared by European Commission

Compass Lexecon advised DS Smith, a manufacturer of paper and packaging products, on the acquisition of its competitor Europac, cleared by the European Commission.

The parties mainly overlapped in the production of corrugated sheets and cases, with potential competitive issues in the markets in Portugal and France. The parties addressed the European Commission's concerns by proposing the divestiture of a number of plants in those regions, including accompanying customer contracts, and obtained approval for the transaction in November 2018.

The Compass Lexecon team included Lorenzo Coppi, Neil Dryden, Enrique Andreu, Luis Agosti, Laura Phaff, Alyssa Lam, Gwilhem Charbonnier, Daniel Westrik and Segye Shin .