On October 25, 2019, Evercore and Credit Suisse sent a process letter to IFF and Party A inviting them to submit revised proposals on November 13, 2019. On that same day, Skadden sent initial drafts of the term sheets for the Merger Agreement, the Separation Agreement and the Tax Matters Agreement to Cleary Gottlieb, reflecting DuPont’s preferred approach on certain key transaction terms to be included in those documents.
On October 27, 2019, the IFF Transaction Committee held a telephonic meeting where the committee members, John Ferraro, a member of the IFF board of directors, and members of IFF’s senior management in attendance discussed the potential combination with N&B, the diligence completed to date, the combination’s strategic rationale, potential timeline, and potential governance and organizational structure.
From October 28 to October 31, 2019, representatives from IFF, DuPont, Cleary Gottlieb, Skadden, Evercore, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Greenhill and other third-party advisors of IFF and DuPont conducted due diligence calls on various topics.
On October 29, Mr. Fibig and Mr. Breen held a call where Mr. Fibig updated Mr. Breen on IFF’s board of directors meeting and followed up on the auction process.
On October 29, 2019, a nationally recognized advisory firm and third-party advisor of DuPont (“DuPont Synergies Advisor”) and IFF Synergies Advisor conducted a high level meeting to discuss areas of potential synergies between the N&B Business and IFF and estimates thereof.
On October 30, 2019, the IFF board of directors met at the offices of Cleary Gottlieb with members of IFF’s executive management team and representatives of Cleary Gottlieb, Greenhill and Morgan Stanley, where they discussed various topics including those related to the potential transaction. The topics discussed included the process for the potential transaction, the strategic analysis of the combination, and proposed next steps. The IFF board of directors then requested a further follow-up meeting on the potential combination prior to IFF submitting a revised bid.
Generally, from mid-October until revised non-binding proposals were received on November 13, 2019, through numerous telephonic sessions, IFF and Party A conducted financial and legal due diligence on the N&B Business and DuPont conducted financial and legal due diligence on IFF and Party A.
On November 1, 2019, IFF and DuPont executed a clean team confidentiality agreement, setting forth customary “clean team” procedures to facilitate the sharing of limited non-public, confidential and proprietary information regarding each party’s business (DuPont entered into a similar agreement with Party A on November 12, 2019). On the same day, representatives of IFF, including Mr. Fibig, Francisco Fortanet (Executive Vice President, Operations) and Greg Yep (Executive Vice President, Chief Global Scientific & Sustainability Officer), visited certain manufacturing sites of the N&B Business in Denmark.
On November 2 and 3, 2019, representatives from IFF, IFF’s financial advisors and representatives from DuPont met for a management presentation in London. Representatives of DuPont, including management of the N&B Business, gave a presentation on the N&B Business, and representatives of IFF gave a presentation on IFF’s business and the potential benefits of a strategic combination between IFF and the N&B Business, including, but not limited to, cost synergies.
On November 5, 2019, Cleary Gottlieb sent Skadden revised drafts of the terms sheets for the Merger Agreement, the Separation Agreement and the Tax Matters Agreement.
On November 7, 2019, Skadden sent Cleary Gottlieb revised drafts of the terms sheets for the Merger Agreement, the Separation Agreement and the Tax Matters Agreement. Following Skadden’s delivery of revised drafts to Cleary Gottlieb on November 7, 2019, Cleary Gottlieb and Skadden had a call on November 8, 2019, to discuss Cleary Gottlieb’s initial markup and Skadden’s response. During that call, Cleary Gottlieb and Skadden
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