Davies

Mark C. Katz

Mark Katz is a partner in the Competition & Foreign Investment Review, Retail and China practices. He has advised domestic and international clients on a wide variety of competition law matters, such as mergers and acquisitions, criminal cartel investigations, joint ventures, abuse of dominance, distribution and pricing practices, misleading advertising and compliance and other legislation governing foreign investment in Canada.

Mark has appeared at every level of court in relation to competition matters, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and has acted as counsel on several leading cases before the Competition Tribunal, including the first abuse of dominance and merger cases heard by that body. He also provides advice with respect to the application of the Investment Canada Act.

Mark has authored a wide variety of articles and conference papers on competition law matters and contributed to a number of texts and treatises in the area, as well as authoring and presenting policy briefs for clients on a variety of domestic and international competition-related matters. Mark is most recently co-author of The Competition Law Guide for Trade Associations in Canada. Mark is also a member of the editorial board for Competition Law Insight and a regular contributor to the Kluwer Competition Blog.

Mark is very active in the American Bar Association and Canadian Bar Association, including serving currently as the co-chair of the international antitrust law committee of the ABA section of international law and the immediate past chair of the criminal matters committee of the CBA section of national competition law.

Representative Work

  • Acted as Canadian counsel to United Technologies Corporation on competition and other regulatory matters in connection with its acquisition of Goodrich Corporation in a deal valued at US$16.5 billion.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel to Google Inc. on competition and other regulatory matters in connection with its US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc.

  • Acted for Rogers Communications Inc. with respect to competition and regulatory matters in connection with its joint acquisition with Bell Canada of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. from Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

  • Acted for Amcor Limited in its acquisition of Alcan Packaging operations from Rio Tinto plc in 31 countries for approximately US$2 billion. The acquisition enhances Amcor's position as one of the world's leading packaging companies.

  • Acted for Minmetals Resources Limited in its $1.33-billion offer to acquire the outstanding shares of Anvil Mining Limited, a Canadian company headquartered in Perth, Australia, with mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • Acted for Commerz Real Investmentgesellschaft mbH, as manager of hausInvest, an open-ended real estate fund in Germany, in connection with its sale of its 50% interest in four prominent shopping centres in Canada (in Québec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia) to Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc. for $508 million.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel to IMC International Metalworking Companies B.V. in connection with its contemplated strategic arrangement with Woulfe Mining Corporation and its 100%-owned tungsten/molybdenum South Korean subsidiary, Sangdong Mining Corporation.

  • Acted for Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd. in connection with its strategic investment in Alderon Iron Ore Corp. and its Kami iron ore project.

  • Acted for Watsco, Inc. in its acquisition of 60% of Carrier's $330 million Canadian heating, ventilation and air conditioning distribution network in Canada, to form a joint venture with UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp., under the name Carrier Enterprise Canada.

  • Acted for Twin Rivers Technologies - Entreprises de Transformation de Graines Oléagineuses du Québec Inc., a subsidiary of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd of Malaysia, in connection with its joint venture with Bunge North America to create Bunge ETGO L.P.

  • Acted for Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited in connection to the acquisition of Grayd Resource Corporation by way of takeover bid for $275 million.

  • Acted for Bird Construction Inc. in connection with its $78 million acquisition of all outstanding shares of H.J. O'Connell, Limited, a construction company with operations in Newfoundland and Labrador, Québec and Manitoba.

  • Acted for Minmetals Exploration & Development (Luxembourg) Limited S.a.r.l. in connection with its acquisition, on a private placement basis, of 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of Century Iron Mines Corporation (formerly Red Rock Capital Corp.). In connection with the acquisition of shares, Davies also acted for Minmetals in respect of the material terms of an Offtake Agreement to be entered into between Minmetals and Century providing for the purchase by Minmetals of iron ore produced from Century's Duncan Lake Property.

  • Acted for AbitibiBowater Inc. (now known as Resolute Forest Products) in connection with the sale of its 75% indirect interest in ACH Limited Partnership, which owns 8 hydroelectric generating facilities in Ontario, in a transaction valued at $640 million.

  • Acted as counsel for OneSteel Limited on Canadian Competition Act matters in connection with its US$932-million acquisition of the Moly-Cop and AltaSteel businesses from Anglo American Plc.

  • Acted as Canadian Counsel for Moody's Corporation in connection with its $155-million acquisition of CSI Global Education Inc., Canada's leading provider of financial learning, credentials, and certification.

  • Acted for Canpages Inc., a local search and directories publisher in Canada, in an acquisition by Yellow Media Inc. from an investor group led by private equity firm HM Capital Partners, in a deal valued at $225 million.

  • Acted for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, a leading global bank headquartered in China, in its acquisition of The Bank of East Asia (Canada), a Canadian chartered bank.

  • Acted for Barzel Industries Canada Inc. (formerly Novamerican Steel) in its cross-border restructuring proceedings involving independent proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act run in parallel concert with U.S. Chapter 11 proceedings for the U.S. parent company and U.S. subsidiaries and implementing a cross-border "stalking horse" sale agreement, cross-border bidding and auction process and closing of such sale within 65 days of the initial filing.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel to Wells Fargo & Company on Canadian regulatory matters in connection with its acquisition of Wachovia Corporation in a deal valued at US$11.7 billion.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel to Google Inc. on Canadian regulatory matters in connection with its proposed services agreement with Yahoo! Inc.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel for Time Inc. in its acquisition of QSP, Inc., in the United States, and Quality Service Products Inc., in Canada, from The Readers Digest Association Inc. in a transaction valued at US$110 million.

  • Acted for Jinchuan Group Ltd., a Chinese state-controlled corporation and the largest producer of cobalt, nickel and platinum group metals in China, in its $214-million all-cash takeover bid for Tyler Resources Inc.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel for Reuters Group PLC in its dual-listed company merger with The Thomson Corporation to create Thomson-Reuters in a transaction valued at US$17.6 billion, creating the first Canadian dual-listed company structure.

  • Acted for Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. (now known as Resolute Forest Products) in connection with the sale of a paper mill and timberlands in Fort Williams, Ontario.

  • Acted for INEOS on Canadian regulatory matters in connection with the formation of a joint venture to combine the INEOS Silica business and PQ Corporation, both manufacturers of industrial silicates and silicas, in a transaction valued at US$1 billion.

  • Acted for Barzel Industries Inc. (formerly Symmetry Holdings Inc.) in its acquisition of Novamerican Steel Inc. for a purchase price of US$585 million.

  • Acted for Australia-based Amcor Limited in the sale of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging operation in six countries in Europe to La Seda de Barcelona S.A. in a transaction valued at 430 million euros.

  • Acted for Cadim Inc. (a division of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) in connection with its partnership arrangements with Westmont Hospitality Group and Cadbridge Investors LP, and acted for Cadbridge and InnVest REIT in connection with their joint negotiated takeover bid for Legacy Hotels REIT in a transaction valued at approximately $2.5 billion.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel for Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Fidelity National Financial Inc. in their acquisition of Ceridian Corporation in a transaction valued at US$5.3 billion.

  • Acted for Xstrata plc in its $6.2 billion all-cash friendly takeover bid to acquire LionOre Mining International. Following two interloper bids by MMC Norilsk Nickel, Xstrata received the largest percentage break fee (5%) in any Canadian deal valued at over $1 billion.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel for private equity funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC in their acquisition of substantially all of the North American operations and facilities of Holiday Retirement Corp., involving 299 seniors' living communities totalling over 35,000 living units, including 34 communities across Canada.

  • Acting for Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. in its defence of class actions across Canada alleging price fixing in respect of, among other things, fees for passenger airfares.

  • Acted as Canadian counsel for private equity funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC in their acquisition of RailAmerica Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at US$1.1 billion.

  • Acted for an investment group led by Joseph Neubauer and investment funds managed by GS Capital Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors, JP Morgan Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Warburg Pincus LLC on Canadian regulatory matters in connection with the acquisition of ARAMARK Corporation in a transaction valued at US$8.3 billion.

  • Acted for Vishay Intertechnology Inc. in its acquisition of the Power Control Systems ("PCS") business from International Rectifier in a transaction valued at approximately US$290 million.

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PUBLICATIONS

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Recognition

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  • Recognized by Who's Who Legal: Canada as a leading business law practitioner in the area of Competition.
  • Recognized in Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of Competition & Antitrust.
  • Recognized by The Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of Competition/Antitrust Law.
  • Recognized by PLCWhich lawyer? in the field of Competition/Antitrust.
  • Listed in Who's Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers.
  • Achieved one of Martindale-Hubbell's highest rankings.

Professional Affiliations

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Co-Chair, International Antitrust Law Committee, American Bar Association Section of International Law

Past Chair, Criminal Law Section, Canadian Bar Association, National Competition Law Section

Board Memberships

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Community Involvement

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  • Avenue Road Hockey Association
  • Camp Massad of Québec
  • Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind

Teaching Engagements

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Speaking Engagements

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Mark speaks regularly on the topics of Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review Law. His recent speaking engagements include:

  • “Key Compliance Strategies to Avoid Misleading Advertising Violations in Canada”, Strafford Webinars (January 8, 2013);
  • Co-presenter, “Competition Law and Associations in Canada”, Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE), CSAE National Conference & Showcase (November 1, 2012);
  • Speaker, “Global Economic Slowdown – What’s its Impact on Regulatory Clearance for Mergers and Acquisitions?”, ABA Section of International Law, Section of International Law 2012 Fall Meeting (October 16-20, 2012);
  • Co-presenter, “The Ethics of Internal Investigations”, NYCLA Anti-Trust and Trade Regulation Committee & ABA Section of International Law (October 15, 2012);
  • 2012 Annual Competition Law Fall Conference, Canadian Bar Association (September 20-21, 2012);
  • Co-lecturer, Federated Press 5th Negotiating and Drafting International Business Agreements Course (June 11-12, 2012);
  • Moderator, “The "Nuts and Bolts" of International Joint Ventures: Israel and the U.S./EU”, ABA Section of International Law & Israel Bar Association Law, Business and Society (May 22, 2012);
  • Speaker, “Competition/IP & technology”, Global Competition Review (GCR): GCR Live: Law Leaders Asia-Pacific 2012 (March 2-3, 2012)

Articles and Publications

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Mark Katz
Mark Katz
Partner
Office:
Toronto
Tel:
416.863.5578
Email:
mkatz@dwpv.com
Bar Admissions:

Ontario, 1989

Education:

Osgoode Hall Law School, LL.B., 1987

McGill University, B.A., 1984