We have seen a rise in Canadian M&A activity during the first half of 2017 and to date there have been a number of developments, including regulatory and judicial decisions, which will have an impact on many M&A transactions. For example, the InterOil decision has raised questions about the use of plans of arrangement, while securities administrators have published new guidance regarding process, disclosure and fairness opinions in transactions involving a conflict of interest. Please visit our website for recent bulletins on these and other topics.
Our M&A team will continue to monitor the M&A landscape and provide information and analysis of new M&A developments as they arise.
Not surprisingly, BLG's Mergers and Acquisitions team was busy during the first half of 2017. As at the end of June, BLG had advised on more than 65 M&A deals with an aggregate disclosed value of over CDN$27 billion, exceeding the total value of all our deals in 2016.
Significant transactions in H1 2017 included acting as counsel to:
- Bedrock Industries in connection with its CDN$500M acquisition of Stelco Inc. and the associated CCAA restructuring.
- Delbrooke Capital in its successful election of its slate of dissident director nominees to the board of directors of Rapier Gold Inc., including the court ordered appointment of an independent chair.
- Stone Canyon Industries, LLC in its US$2.3B acquisition of Mauser Group N.V., through its subsidiary BWAY Corp.
- Retirement Concepts, British Columbia's largest retirement home chain, in its sale of 23 retirement properties to Anbang Insurance Group for an undisclosed amount.
- VCA, Inc. in its US$9.1B acquisition by Mars, Inc. (This transaction was included in Thomson Reuters' 2017 Top Ten US Announced Deals.)
M&A Building Blocks
Our M&A team also launched M&A Building Blocks in early 2017. This insightful resource provides an in-depth look into different aspects of M&A transactions from start to finish. Articles we have released in this series, to date, are:
- Introduction to the Deal
- Confidentiality Agreements and Letters of Intent
- Duties of the Board or Special Committee
- Basic Deal Structures
Future articles will cover topics such as MAC clauses and deal protections. Please stay tuned!
Thank you to our clients for allowing us to work on your exciting and important transactions. It has been a great year so far and we look forward to M&A activity in Canada continuing to be strong in the second half of 2017.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
