Melanie Shishler is a partner practising in the areas of corporate, commercial and securities law with an emphasis on public and private mergers and acquisitions, both negotiated and unsolicited. She has also worked on a variety of other matters, including joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, private equity investment transactions and equity and debt corporate finance.
In the mergers and acquisitions area, Melanie has played a principal role in representing a number of companies in their acquisition transactions and has acted for bidders and target companies in a number of solicited and unsolicited take-over bids and privately negotiated acquisitions. In 2006, Melanie acted for Barrick Gold Corporation in the US$1.5 billion sale of its interest in the South Deep gold mining project in South Africa. Melanie has also acted for BHP Billiton in connection with the acquisition of Western Canadian mining assets and related joint venture, off-take and operating arrangements. Other representative mergers and acquisition transactions include the $7.5 billion merger of Clarica Life Insurance Company and Sun Life Financial Services and the privately negotiated acquisition by FortisOntario Inc. of the operating subsidiaries of Granite Power Corporation.
Melanie represented Canico Resource Corp. and its Special Committee in connection with an unsolicited bid for Canico by CVRD in September 2005, during which CVRD ultimately increased its bid from $790 million to $950 million to obtain control of Canico. Melanie also acted for a consortium of buyers in the public company auction in late 2005/early 2006 of Hudson's Bay Company, Canada's oldest public company, which was acquired by Jerry Zucker in February 2006.
Melanie has also acted for clients of the firm in connection with the establishment of various international and domestic joint ventures, including Barrick Gold Corporation's minority investment in and proposed Russian joint venture with Celtic Resources Holdings plc, Barrick's exploration joint venture in Mongolia with QGX Ltd., Iogen Corporation's strategic alliance with Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies, and a joint venture between Soulpepper Theatre Company and George Brown College to develop the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, a theatre and educational complex in Toronto's historic distillery district.
Melanie also acts in the corporate finance and securities law areas. In 2004, Melanie acted on behalf of Barrick and its subsidiary Barrick Gold Finance Company in connection with the issuance of US$750 million of debt securities to investors in the U.S. Melanie was also involved in the $300 million initial public offering of InnVest Real Estate Investment Trust, in connection with the acquisition of a portfolio of 114 hotels located throughout Canada and has acted for InnVest REIT in a number of its subsequent acquisitions of hotel properties.
Melanie has written and spoken frequently on the subject of joint ventures. She is the co-author of
Joint Ventures: Legal and Business Perspectives (Irwin Law: 1999), a book which provides practical advice for executives, business advisors and in-house counsel contemplating a joint venture strategy.
Melanie received her LL.B. in 1997 from the University of Toronto and her B.A. (with Great Distinction) in Classics from McGill University. She became a partner in 2001.
Top of Page
