Background 
Strategy 
Result Patrón
Patrón Tequila was co-founded in 1989 by Martin Crowley and John Paul DeJoria, majority shareholder of personal care products company John Paul Mitchell Systems. Mr. Crowley had the inspiration to produce the world’s first ultra-premium sipping tequila and received seed capital from Mr. DeJoria. The company initially sourced its tequila from a family-owned distillery in the Los Altos region of Mexico―Siete Leguas―and entered into an exclusive distribution arrangement with Seagrams. This strategic partnership ultimately met with limited success and Patrón sued Seagrams to break the exclusive agreement. Patrón succeeded in extricating itself from the tieup, but at a considerable cost. Greif & Co. was originally retained by Patrón to arrange financing to fund (i) the court judgment in Seagram’s favor financially, (ii) construction of a new, company-owned distillery and (iii) working capital. Greif & Co. successfully raised $20 million in debt financing from California Bank & Trust which enabled Patrón to accomplish these objectives in 2002. Unfortunately, the following year, Mr. Crowley died of a heart attack, leaving his 50% ownership of Patrón to the Windsong Trust, a charitable foundation to provide for the educational needs of underprivileged children worldwide. Mr. DeJoria attempted to exercise a buy-sell agreement to purchase the Crowley Estate’s interest. The trustees of the estate and the charity once again called on Greif & Co., this time to determine if the offer was fair and, if not, what to do about it.