Our Practice
The corporate finance and securities practice group is the largest in our firm with over 90 practitioners in Toronto, Montréal and New York.  We assist Canadian, U.S. and foreign issuers, underwriters, investors and other capital market participants with respect to domestic, cross-border and foreign debt and equity financings and other transactions.  We have one of the largest capital markets practices in Canada and through our presence in Toronto, Montréal and New York we have a particular expertise in cross-border transactions.

Our group is actively involved in public and private offerings of both debt and equity, including IPOs, secondary offerings, income trusts, REITs, high-yield debt, structured products, derivatives and rights offerings.  We have significant expertise in international and cross-border transactions utilizing the multi-jurisdictional disclosure system (MJDS).

In addition to our transactional work, we assist our public company clients with all of their securities compliance issues, including corporate governance and disclosure obligations, securities regulatory and enforcement matters and internal investigations.  We advise Canadian and foreign investment dealers on their compliance and trading issues with product development and execution issues.  We have significant experience working with public and para-public institutions, creating innovative financing structures and products to address the market and financing restrictions of these institutions.  We are active on industry committees involving securities regulators in Ontario and Québec and frequently interact with securities regulators and stock exchanges which enables us to effectively advise clients of the shifting concerns of regulators and exchanges, thereby facilitating advance consultations and the obtaining of discretionary relief in appropriate circumstances.
 
Our Clients
Our expertise in corporate finance and securities attracts a wide variety of clients, including:
 
• Public and private issuers
• Investment bankers
• Investment advisors
• Underwriters
• Venture capitalists
• Hedge funds
• Boards and committees of directors
• Securities regulators
 

Our Work
A small, but representative, sample of corporate finance and securities transactions we have been involved in include:

• BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and a syndicate of dealers renewed a $2.5 billion medium-term notes program with Greater Toronto Airports Authority;

• Tim Hortons Inc. on various matters during the spin off of Tim Hortons by Wendy's;

• Government of Ontario in the $700 million IPO of Teranet Inc., the Province's electronic land registry system;

• The underwriting syndicate in the $133 million initial public offering by Gluskin Sheff + Associates;

• Brascan Corp. completed an equity financing, bridge loan and asset-based facility for the $1.2 billion acquisition of Weyerhaeuser Company Ltd.'s British Columbia coastal business;

• Madacy Entertainment Income Fund completed its initial public offering for total proceeds of $75.4 million.  Proceeds of the offering, together with approximately $18.4 million borrowed under a credit facility were used to acquire the recorded music and home video products business of Madacy Entertainment Group, Ltd.

Recognition
The group received the highest ranking, ''most frequently recommended'', in the 2006 Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory and was recognized for offering "tremendous people across the board who manage their files extremely well, generate amazing client loyalty, and cultivate a culture of excellence" in Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2006.  Members of our group are often called upon to provide counsel in the area of policy development for the Ontario Securities Commission, the Autorité des marchés financiers (Québec), the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Toronto Stock Exchange and the Investment Dealers Association of Canada.

Organizational Leadership
Many of our lawyers also teach or have taught corporate finance and securities regulation courses at leading Canadian law schools and conduct continuing legal education seminars for The Toronto Stock Exchange, The Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association, the New York Bar Association and others.