Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to Acquire Van Houtte

Ropes & Gray represented Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. in its proposed acquisition of Canadian gourmet coffee roaster Van Houtte from its private equity owner Littlejohn for CDN $915 million in cash, announced on September 14.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by corporate partner Jane Goldstein and included corporate associates Taylor Hart and Sarah Schaffer-Raux, tax partner Eric Elfman and associate Aaron Harsh.

Earlier this year, Ropes & Gray represented Green Mountain in Luigi Lavazza S.p.A's agreement to buy $250 million of newly issued shares of common stock in the Vermont-based coffee company. The transaction was announced in August 2010.

The firm represented Green Mountain on several other strategic transactions over the last 18 months, including its

• $290 million acquisition of Diedrich Coffee, Inc. in 2010;
• $165 million acquisition of Timothy's Coffees of the World, Inc. in 2009;
• multi-million dollar acquisition of Tully’s Coffee Corporation in 2009;
• offering of 4 million shares of common stock in 2009.