Item 2.01.
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Completion of Acquisition or Disposition of Assets.
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As previously reported, on January 13, 2020, Cott Corporation (“Cott”) entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “merger agreement”), as amended on January 28, 2020, with Cott Holdings Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cott (“Holdings”), Fore Merger LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Holdings (“Merger Sub”), Fore Acquisition Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merger Sub (the “Purchaser”), and Primo Water Corporation (“Primo”) pursuant to which Cott and the Purchaser commenced an exchange offer (the “offer”) to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Primo, par value $0.001 per share, in exchange for, at the election of the holder, (i) $14.00 in cash, (ii) 1.0229 Cott common shares, no par value per share, plus cash in lieu of any fractional Cott common share, or (iii) $5.04 in cash and 0.6549 Cott common shares, in each case, without interest and less any applicable taxes required to be deducted or withheld in respect thereof and subject to proration as described in the merger agreement ((i), (ii), and (iii) as applicable, the “transaction consideration”) upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Prospectus/Offer dated January 28, 2020, as amended on February 7, 2020 (and any amendments and supplements thereto), the related Letter of Election and Transmittal, and the Prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3) on February 18, 2020.
The offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on February 28, 2020 (the “expiration time”). The depositary and exchange agent for the offer advised that, as of the expiration time, a total of 32,716,138 shares of Primo common stock had been validly tendered and not properly withdrawn pursuant to the offer, which tendered shares of Primo common stock represented approximately 81.1% of the outstanding shares of Primo common stock as of the expiration time. Cott and the Purchaser accepted for exchange all such shares of Primo common stock validly tendered and not properly withdrawn pursuant to the offer; provided, that Primo stockholders who elected to receive the all-stock consideration were subject to proration at a rate of approximately 64.8% and will receive their consideration in the form of $14.00 in cash for each share not accepted for the all-stock election due to proration and 1.0229 Cott common shares per share of Primo common stock for shares that were accepted for the all-stock election.
On March 2, 2020, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the merger agreement, Cott completed its acquisition of Primo when (i) the Purchaser merged with and into Primo (the “first merger”), with Primo surviving the first merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merger Sub and (ii) immediately following the first merger, Primo merged with and into Merger Sub (the “second merger” and together with the first merger, the “mergers”), with Merger Sub being the surviving entity as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cott. Primo and Cott intend, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, for the offer and the mergers, taken together, to constitute a single integrated transaction that qualifies as a “reorganization” within the meaning of Section 368(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
The first merger was governed by Section 251(h) of the Delaware General Corporation Law, with no stockholder vote required to consummate the first merger. At the effective time of the first merger, each share of Primo common stock (other than certain dissenting, converted and cancelled shares and shares tendered into the offer and accepted by the Purchaser, but including shares paid to a holder of a vested Primo equity-based award (other than deferred stock unit awards) or Primo warrants immediately prior to the effective time of the first merger, as described further in the merger agreement) was converted into the right to receive the transaction consideration.
The cash portion of the transaction consideration and related costs and expenses were funded by cash on hand and from proceeds from the disposition of S. & D. Coffee, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cott, on February 28, 2020.
The foregoing descriptions of the offer, the mergers and the merger agreement in this Item 2.01 do not purport to be complete and are subject to and qualified in their entirety by reference to the full text of the merger agreement, a copy of which was filed as Exhibit 2.1 to Cott’s Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on January 13, 2020, and amendment thereto, a copy of which filed as Exhibit 2.2 to Cott’s Registration Statement on Form S-4, filed with the SEC on January 28, 2020, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.