Allen & Overy has advised Exponent Private Equity (“Exponent”) on its binding and irrevocable offer to The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (“SMG”), the world's leading marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care, to purchase SMG’s European and Australian operations.

The proposed sale includes rights to leading garden care brands such as Roundup®, Miracle-Gro®, Weedol®, KB®, Substral®, Nexalotte®, and Osmocote®, among others, and operations in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and the UK.

This is the second carve-out deal on which A&O has advised Exponent in a month, having also advised on the GBP215 million acquisition of DCC Environmental, the environmental waste management division of DCC plc in the UK and Ireland.

Both of these deals were led by private equity partner Gordon Milne, who comments: “Exponent is a long-standing client of the firm and it has been a pleasure to advise on two deals that play to its strong record of unlocking growth from corporate carve-outs.”

The A&O team also included private equity partner Peter Banks who advised on the equity arrangements with management.  Financing advice was provided by finance partner Nick Clark on the DCC transaction and finance partner Neil Sinha on the SMG transaction.  Jim Ford advised on the IP and commercial arrangements for both transactions.