Continental Grain and Cargill Buy Out Sanderson Farms for $4.5 Billion

Paul, Weiss advised Continental Grain, a global investor, owner and operator of food and agribusiness companies, in its $4.5 billion acquisition, alongside global food corporation Cargill, of Sanderson Farms Inc. Under the all-cash deal, Sanderson Farms, a leading producer and distributor of fresh, frozen and minimally prepared chicken, received $203 per share; the company has been combined with Continental Grain subsidiary Wayne Farms, forming a new, privately held poultry business known as Wayne-Sanderson Farms.

The Paul, Weiss team included, among others, corporate partners Steven Williams, Thomas de la Bastide and Raphael Russo and counsel Stephen Koo, Mikhel Schecter and David Curtiss; litigation partners Aidan Synnott and Geoffrey Chepiga and counsel Peter Jaffe, Steven Herzog and Amy Barton; tax partners Scott Sontag and Patrick Karsnitz and counsel Sarah Katz; executive compensation counsel Ron Aizen; intellectual property partner Charles Googe; real estate partner Peter Fisch; environmental counsel William O’Brien; antitrust counsel Marta Kelly and Yuni Sobel; and personal representation counsel Emma Sobol.