Kevin Thomson is a senior partner in the Toronto office. He is widely regarded as one of Canada's leading mergers and acquisitions lawyers. Since 1997, he has been a member of the firm's Management Committee, which has supervisory authority for the firm as a whole.

Kevin has acted for bidders and target companies in numerous solicited and unsolicited public takeover bids and privately negotiated acquisitions across a broad range of industries, including extensive transactional experience in the mining sector.

Representative Work

• Acted for Barrick Gold Corporation in its US$10.4 billion acquisition of Placer Dome Inc. in 2006 pursuant to a hostile takeover bid launched in 2005. At the time of completion, that transaction ranked as the largest hostile takeover bid in Canadian history. That transaction also involved the completion of an agreement between Barrick and Goldcorp Inc. to sell to Goldcorp approximately US$1.6 billion of Placer Dome assets if the Barrick bid was successful. The Placer Dome transaction continues to rank as the largest acquisition ever completed in the world gold mining industry.
• Acting for Toromont Industries Ltd. in its $685 million acquisition of Enerflex Systems Income Fund pursuant to a hostile takeover bid announced in November 2009.
• Acted for West Timmins Mining Inc. in its 2009 $350 million merger by way of Plan of Arrangement with Lake Shore Gold Inc.
• Acted for MAG Silver Corp. in its successful defence against a $350 million hostile takeover bid announced by Fresnillo plc in December 2008.
• Acted for Fronteer Development Group Inc. in its successful 2009 unsolicited insider takeover bid to acquire Aurora Energy Resources Inc.
• Acted for Detour Gold Corporation in its successful 2009 merger by way of triangular amalgamation with PDX Resources Inc.
• Acted for Barrick Gold in its successful 2008 $470 million takeover bid for Cadence Energy Inc., which busted up a proposed merger between Cadence Energy and Daylight Resources Energy Trust.
• Acted for Khan Resources Inc. in its 2008 hostile takeover bid for Western Prospector Resources Inc.
• Acted for Barrick Gold in its successful 2007 $773 million takeover bid for Arizona Star Resources Inc.
• Acted for Zinifex Limited (now OZ Minerals Limited) in its successful 2007 $360 million takeover bid for Wolfden Resources Limited.
• Acted for WEGA Mining Limited in its successful 2007 takeover bid for Goldbelt Resources Limited.
• Acted for Barrick Gold in its 2006 hostile US$1.7 billion takeover bid for NovaGold Resources and its concurrent successful friendly takeover bid for Pioneer Metals Corporation.
• Acted for Canico Resource Corp. and its Special Committee defending against a hostile takeover bid by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) in 2005, during which CVRD ultimately increased its bid from $790 million to $950 million to obtain control of Canico.
• Acted for Barrick Gold in its successful acquisition by takeover bids of Sutton Resources Limited and Pangea Goldfields Limited; Barrick's successful US$2.25 billion acquisition of NYSE-listed Homestake Mining Company by way of triangular Delaware merger; Barrick's joint participation with Antofagasta in the bid for Tethyan Copper Co. of Australia and the following sale to Barrick of a 50% interest in the Reko Diq gold/copper project in Pakistan; Barrick's US$1.5 billion sale of its interest in the South Deep mining project in South Africa; and Barrick's unsolicited takeover bid for Argentina Goldfields Ltd.
• 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.
• Acted for a strategic buyer in the proposed acquisition of the Famous Players movie chain in 2005, which lost the auction in the final round of bidding to the successful buyer, Cineplex Galaxy Cinemas.

Recognition

• Recognized in Law Business Research's Who's Who Legal: Canada as a leading business law practitioner in the areas of Mergers & Acquisitions and Mining.
• Recognized by the IFLR 1000 Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms as a leading M&A lawyer.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading M&A lawyers in the Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading cross-border M&A lawyers by the Lexpert® Guide to the Leading U.S./Canada Cross-border Corporate Lawyers.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading M&A lawyers in Chambers Global's Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers for Business and Leaders in their Field.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading M&A lawyers in the Expert Guides' Guide to the World's Leading Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyers.  
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading M&A lawyers in Who's Who Legal's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading lawyers in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and natural resources law by Best Lawyers: The Best Lawyers in Canada.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading mining law lawyers in Who's Who Legal's The International Who's Who of Mining Lawyers.
• Recognized as one of Canada's leading natural resource lawyers by the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory.

Articles and Publications

Kevin is a contributing author to Mergers & Acquisitions: A Practical Global Guide (Global Law and Business).

Top of Page