Shearman & Sterling is advising American Sugar, North America's largest cane sugar refiner, on its £211 million ($316 million) acquisition of Tate & Lyle's European sugar refining business.

The acquisition, which includes cane sugar refineries in London and Lisbon, the Lyle's Golden Syrup factory in London, the associated sugar and syrup brands and the Tate & Lyle Process Technology consulting business, will increase American Sugar's total refining capacity to 6 million metric tons per year and will be American Sugar's first acquisition in Europe.

The completion of the acquisition, which is conditional upon competition clearance in Portugal, is expected to occur within approximately two months.

The Shearman & Sterling team of lawyers in the firm's London and New York offices is being led by M&A partner George Casey and associate Sean Skiffington. The team also includes partners Iain Scoon, Don Lonczak and Cynthia Urda-Kassis, counsels Antonia Horrocks, Simon Letherman, Deborah Lincoln, Mehran Massih and Sam Whitaker and associates Tim Hanson, Lucy Keeble, James Leslie, Assaad Nasr, Yumi Paringaux, Michael Steinberg and Cody Wright.