BUSINESS
CAREERS

M&A market in Canada
shows signs it is growing
in strength once again

BEVERLY CRAMP

The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) sector is rising again in Canada.

Ogilvy Renault LLP acted for Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold mining company, in its recent deal to buy Equinox Minerals Ltd. for $7.3 billion in cash. The deal required the expertise of fourteen Ogilvy Renault lawyers in its Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary offices. In addition, lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in the U.S. and Clayton Utz in Australia worked on the complicated acquisition.

The Barrick/Equinox deal is one of the largest Canadian mining deals, as well as the largest in any Canadian sector so far this year. Another corporate merger was in the news at the beginning of May when a deal was announced between the retail giant, Canadian Tire Corp., and Canada’s largest sporting-goods merchant, Forzani Group Ltd. The acquisition is worth approximately $700 million and is expected to close later this year.

“This is a significant under-

“We haven’t done
anything like this
for almost ten years.
The last one was our
acquisition of Mark’s
Work Warehouse,
which turned out
phenomenally
successful.

JACQUES BOISSINOT / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canadian Tire Corp. recently struck a friendly deal worth $771-million for sporting goods specialist Forzani Group Ltd.

taking for us,” says Doug
Nathanson, Canadian Tire
Corp.’s vice president & associ-
ate general counsel. “We haven’t
done anything like this for
almost ten years. The last one
was our acquisition of Mark’s
Work Warehouse, which turned
out phenomenally successful.”
The Forzani acquisition was
started in November, 2010. A core
group of senior executives includ-
ing Nathanson were involved in
every step. “Forzani’s was a com-
pany we had had an interest in for
quite a while but we were waiting
for the right timing. Last year
everything came together. Our bal-
ance sheet was strong and the
market was right.”
Canadian Tire’s legal depart-
ment has over a dozen lawyers
with various specialties and many
were called upon to review the
documents and provide their
expertise. Outside counsel was also
involved, including Goodmans
LLP Toronto office, and Stikeman
Elliott LLP in Ottawa and Mont-
real. “Goodman helped us with our
due diligence and Stikeman
Elliott’s Ottawa office was brought
in to deal with competition mat-
ters. And because Forzani has
quite a few retail outlets in Quebec,
we used Stikeman’s Montreal office
to handle the French documents,”
says Nathanson. “Canadian Tire is
cautious by nature because we are
a public company and we respect
our shareholders. We have to make
sure all areas of due diligence are
carefully tended to.”
The M&A sector suffered a
downturn coinciding with the
2008 recession.