CPF completes acquisition of HyLife Investments

On December 29, 2019, CPF Canada Holdings Corp. (“CPF”), a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl, Thailand’s largest agriculture conglomerate, acquired all of the shares of HyLife Investments Ltd. (“HIL”) for CAD$498,000,000. HIL indirectly owns a majority (50.1%) stake in HyLife Ltd. (“HyLife”), a Canadian pork producer. ITOCHU Corporation (“ITC”) remains the indirect minority shareholder of HyLife.

Founded in 1994, HyLife is the largest pork exporter in Canada and is a leader in feed manufacturing, hog production and distribution of pork product, with over 2,000 employees and facilities across Canada, China, Mexico, Japan and the United States.

HyLife was represented in-house by Lori Dobbie, General Counsel, and Kevin Jensen, Legal Counsel. HIL was represented by Torkin Manes LLP with a legal team led by Matthew Tevlin and including Adrian Myers, Jonathan Mahoney, Nicholas Dempsey and Stephen Skorbinski (M&A), Kay Leung (Tax) and Daniel Pugen (Employment).

Further external representation was provided to HyLife by Gregory Tallon and Courtney Weinstein of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP (Manitoba counsel), Donna Shier and Gatlin Smeijers of Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP (Environmental), Jim Dinning of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP (Competition), EC Legal Rubio Villegas (Mexican counsel), and Harridyal Sodha & Associates (Barbados counsel).

CPF was represented by Latham & Watkins LLP (Hong Kong and other offices) with a legal team led by Simon Cooke and Posit Laohaphan and including (among others) Valerie Fung, Frances Yu, Kirsten Gao, Andrew Yau, Heidi Lui (M&A), Jason Cruise, Anne Haas (Competition), Drew Levin, Hannah Cary (Insurance) and James Barrett (Environmental). Further external representation was provided to CPF by Christopher Nixon, Larry Cobb, Patrick McNally, Kayla Zachariassen, Ryan Sheahan and Jessica Rutledge of Stikeman Elliot LLP (Canadian counsel), Michael Choiselat, Elmer Gomes, Scott Birse, Lewis Allen and Tanci Smart-Carvalho of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP (Manitoba counsel), Carlos del Rio, Julio Alvarez, Lizbeth Borquez and Mariana Westendarp of Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez, S.C. (Mexico counsel), Jieni Gu and Effie Hu of Haiwen (PRC counsel), Marie-France Menc of Kanuka Thuringer LLP (Saskatchewan counsel) and Melanie Jones, Christina Maycock and George McCallum of Lex Caribbean Attorneys at Law (Barbados counsel).

ITC was represented by Steven Doi of Squire Patton Boggs.

Firm(s)

Torkin Manes LLP Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP Latham & Watkins LLP