Effective December 1, 2004 The Heico Companies, L.L.C., a US-based holding company with an established acquisition track record, completed its acquisition of the assets of Canadian steel giant Ivaco Inc. and of several Ivaco subsidiaries for CDN $375 million. Ivaco has been in CCAA protection since September 16, 2003.  The assets included four manufacturing plants at locations in Ontario and in Québec with  a combined employment of over 2200 employees.

Ivaco carried on business as a North American producer of steel, fabricated steel products and precision machined components. Ivaco's modern steel operations included Canada's largest rod mill.  The Ivaco businesses are projected to increase Heico’s annual revenues to $2.5 billion. The acquisitions will expand the number of employees to approximately 11,000. The Heico group of companies is in the top 100 privately-held companies in the U.S.

Ivaco was represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with a team from the Toronto office composed of Jay Swartz (Restructuring), Matthew Gottlieb (Litigation), Gillian Stacey, Rosemary Newman, Melanie Koszegi, Karine De Champlain, Conrad Druzeta, Robert Druzeta, Brooke Jamieson (Corporate), Jeffrey Lem (Real Estate), Claire Kennedy and Paul LaMarre (Tax), Alexandria Pike (Environmental), Richard Elliott and Lori Cornwall (Competition) and a team from the Montreal office that included Denis Ferland and Alain Roberge (Insolvency), Michel Pelletier (Environmental), Louise Patry (Employment), Dominic Nadeau (Corporate and Real Estate) and George Pollack (Transportation).