Sylvain Cossette is a partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance & Securities and Corporate/Commercial practices. Sylvain has substantial expertise in the areas of cross-border, mergers & acquisitions, public offerings and corporate finance. He represents both financial institutions and borrowers.
Representative Work
- Acted as counsel to the Molson brothers, Geoff, Andrew and Justin, in connection with the acquisition of the Montréal Canadiens Hockey Club by the investment group led by the Molson brothers, which transaction is considered to be one of the most significant North American acquisitions in professional sports. The Montréal Canadiens Hockey Club is one of the oldest established National Hockey League (NHL) franchises, and among the most successful clubs in North American sports history. The transaction also included the purchase of the Montréal Bell Centre and evenko.
- Acted for the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in an offering of $2 billion of senior notes, comprised of $1 billion of FRN (floating rate notes) senior notes due 2015 and $1 billion of 4.60% senior notes due 2020.
- Acted for the Special Committee of Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. it is combination by way of a plan of arrangement with Innergex Power Income Fund, valued at $1 billion.
- Acted for Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust in its takeover bid for Overland Realty Limited in an all-cash deal that valued Overland at $70.9 million.
- Acted for the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, in connection with an offering of US$5 billion of senior notes in the United States. This offering is the largest non-government guaranteed offering by any Canadian issuer in US dollars to date.
- Acted for Cominar REIT, the largest commercial property owner and manager in the Province of Québec, in its bought deal public offering of $115 million principal amount of convertible unsecured subordinated debentures. Also acted for Cominar REIT in its $55.2 million public offering of 3,783,500 units. The offering was completed on a bought deal basis through a syndicate of underwriters co-led by National Bank Financial Inc. and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.
- Acted for SITQ Inc. regarding Fabricom S.A.'s, a wholly-owned subsidiary of French-Belgian group GDF Suez, acquisition of Axima Services Inc. and its subsidiaries.
- Acted for SITQ Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, with respect to financing the acquisition by Eimskip Holdings Inc. of Versacold Income Fund in a deal valued at $1.2 billion.
- Acted for Scotia Capital Inc., GMP Securities L.P., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and CIBC World Markets Inc. as lead agents in Cogeco Cable Inc.'s bought deal financing of 3 million subordinate voting shares for total proceeds of $153.45 million.
- Acted for La Senza Corporation in the negotiated takeover bid by Limited Brands, Inc. valued at $710 million.
- Acted for Vitol Refining Group B.V. on its sale of North Atlantic Refining Limited to Harvest Energy Trust in a transaction valued at $1.6 billion.
- Acted for the Molson family in the merger of Molson Inc. with Adolph Coors Company, valued at more than $8 billion.
Recognition
- Recognized in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory as a consistently recommended practitioner in corporate and commercial, corporate finance and securities and mergers and acquisitions law.
- Included in the LEXPERT/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
- Listed as a leading corporate mergers and acquisitions lawyer in Chambers Global’s The World’s Leading Lawyers.
- Named a leading lawyer by IFLR 100 in the field of banking.
- Achieved one of Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rankings.
Speaking EngagementsSylvain has recently chaired three conferences sponsored by The Canadian Institute and Insight in the areas of emerging trends in Canadian securities laws and income trusts, and is a member of a securities regulation senior practitioners consultation committee on securities legislative matters.
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