Amazon moves into food sector with swoop on 460 shops
Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz led a host of elite US law firms advising Amazon on its $13.7bn purchase of Whole Foods Market, marking the online retailer’s first expansion into the bricks-and-mortar food industry.
Sullivan partners Krishna Veeraraghavan and Eric Krautheimer led for Amazon, while Wachtell partners Daniel Neff, Trevor Norwitz and Sabastian Niles acted for Whole Foods. Washington DC-based Covington & Burling antitrust partner Thomas Barnett also advised Amazon.
New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges banking partners Morgan Bale and Heather Viets, capital markets partner Faiza Rahman, M&A partner Raymond Gietz and tax partner William Horton represented Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. The banks committed to bridge financing for Amazon to fund the merger.
Latham & Watkins advised Evercore, financial adviser to Whole Foods.
US-headquartered company Whole Foods hired Evercore earlier this year to advise on a strategic review of its business operations.
For Latham, advising Amazon’s swoop on the upmarket food grocery market follows the firm’s win advising offshore drilling contractor Ensco on its $839m acquisition of Atwood Oceanics.
The US-headquartered firm advised Ensco, led by Houston-based energy partners Sean Wheeler and Debbie Yee. Ensco also sought advice from Slaughter and May corporate partner Hywel Davies.
The purchase, subject to approval from Whole Foods’ shareholders, is expected to finalise during the second half of 2017.
Whole Foods has over 460 shops in the US, UK and Canada. They will continue to operate under the Whole Foods brand, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said. John Mackey will remain its chief executive.
tom.baker@legalease.co.uk