Sonoco/Weidenhammer Acquisition

In July 2015 the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) cleared the completed acquisition by Sonoco Products Company of Weidenhammer Packaging Group. Both parties are active in the manufacturing of composite cans, which are used for packaging food and non-food products. Sonoco (US) and Weidenhammer (Germany) both have UK subsidiaries with domestic production plants. The clearance came after the CMA referred the case for an in-depth Phase II investigation in January 2015. Compass Lexecon provided advice on the competitive effects of the transaction. This advice included assessing the counterfactual based on the current financial performance of the merging parties, defining the relevant markets and analyzing the closeness of competition between the parties by comparing prices and margins between products where the parties did and did not overlap. The Compass Lexecon team of Justin Coombs and Segye Shin worked with Marjorie Holmes, Hannah Kong, Laura-May Scott and Emma Jones of Reed Smith LLP.