Canadian M&A Perspectives Private and Public Mergers & Acquisitions | Private Equity

Tag Archives: public M&A

Fibrek: Where are we now in the regulation of defensive tactics?

By David E. Woollcombe and Leslie Milroy on Posted in Public M&A, Shareholders, Strategy

Resolute’ s battle for ownership of 100% of Fibrek Inc. recently came to an end with a friendly “white knight” offer from Mercer being withdrawn after a lengthy court battle. Resolute’s hostile bid for Fibrek was successful, notwithstanding that Fibrek’s board had endorsed Mercer’s offer at a 40% premium to the hostile bid. The Fibrek… → Read More

The Rising Trend of Reverse Break Fees

By Leila Rafi and Tyler McAuley on Posted in Contractual Matters, Private Transactions, Public M&A, Strategy

Break fees have for many years been a conventional deal protection feature of public M&A transactions. These fees, often referred to as termination fees as they are tied to the termination provisions in the contract containing the deal terms, are typically payable by a target company where it elects to end an agreement for an… → Read More

Competition Bureau Increases the “Transaction-Size Threshold” for Pre-Merger Notification

By Oliver J. Borgers and Tyler McAuley on Posted in Private Transactions, Public M&A

Last week we discussed the new merger review guidelines released by the Competition Bureau of Canada. On Tuesday, February 7, 2012 the Bureau announced  additional changes to one of the key thresholds that trigger pre-merger notification and the review process discussed in our earlier post. In Canada, parties are required to notify the Commissioner of Competition where… → Read More

Amending Interim Order and Circular for a Superior Proposal – Plan of Arrangement Leftovers

By Cristian Blidariu on Posted in Public M&A

The proposed acquisition of Prime Restaurants discussed in this recent post by Robert Hansen continues to whet our blogging appetite. Prime had initially signed a friendly deal to be acquired by Cara Operations via a plan of arrangement and put out a proxy circular dated November 10th with a record date of November 4th and a shareholders meeting… → Read More

Canadian M&A Activity in the United States Reaching Historic Levels in 2011

By Genevieve Pinto on Posted in Public M&A

Despite continuing economic uncertainty in 2011, the pace of Canadian M&A activity in the United States so far this year has reached historic levels, according to a recent study published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Year to date (up to November 14, 2011), Canadian entities were involved in 385 acquisitions of US firms, representing a total transaction… → Read More

Stretching the Umbrella: 5 Tips for Preserving Privilege in a Complex Transaction

By Tyler McAuley on Posted in Strategy

Good communication within a deal team can be the linchpin of a successful transaction. Equally important, however, is the need to preserve privilege and ensure that sensitive information is insulated from any subsequent litigation. Balancing these two demands in a complex and fast moving transaction can be cumbersome, complicated and fraught with risk. Fortunately, recent developments in… → Read More

The Use of Global Depositary Receipts for an Acquisition of a Canadian Public Company – Part 2

By Peter Goode on Posted in Public M&A

In my previous post, I outlined some of the features of a Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) program that was utilized by HRT Participações S.A. (HRT), a Brazilian-based and listed exploration and production company, in its acquisition of UNX Energy Corp., a Calgary-based TSXV listed exploration and production company with oil and gas assets located in… → Read More

The Use of Global Depositary Receipts for an Acquisition of a Canadian Public Company – Part 1

By Peter Goode on Posted in Public M&A

Depositary receipts, which are a type of security that is traded on a stock exchange but which represent an interest in an underlying security that is issued by a publicly traded company in another jurisdiction, have been around since the 1920s in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and more recently, in the form… → Read More

The Clash of the Rights Plan Cases (Redux)

By Robert Hansen on Posted in Public M&A, Shareholders

The Ontario Securities Commission issued an order this week in connection with a shareholder rights plan adopted by the board of directors of MOSAID Technologies Incorporated in response to a hostile bid made by Wi-LAN Inc. The OSC ordered that effective November 1, 2011 (i.e. 70 days after the commencement of Wi-LAN’s unsolicited offer), MOSAID’s… → Read More

M&A Deal Terms – What’s Market?

By W. Ian Palm on Posted in Contractual Matters

There’s an ever-growing list of reports and studies that collect, analyze and scrutinize various deal terms and other aspects of M&A transactions – or at least it feels that way. Like most committed M&A lawyers, we collect this stuff and I, for one, admit to spending a fair bit of time pouring over some of… → Read More