Hong Kong investor group acquires Park'N Fly business

The current owners of Canada's largest off-airport and only national car park company, Park'N Fly, completed the sale of their parking business assets, including all real estate used in connection with the business located in Montreal; Ottawa; Toronto; Edmonton and Vancouver, along with goodwill and other operating assets, to a joint venture led by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited and Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, both companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange of Hong Kong, each owning a 50 per cent interest.

Park'N Fly provides off-airport car park solutions in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa and Vancouver. It operates its off-airport car park business in Vancouver through a joint venture and licenses its brand name to the Halifax International Airport Authority (“HIAA”) for use in HIAA's off-airport car park.

After winning an auction process conducted by the sellers' financial advisors with assistance by the Ontario counsel to the seller, the purchasers' joint venture, acquired the national business assets and operations as well as the license agreement with HIAA. The acquisition included two separate transactions, one for the assets and business located in Canada (other than Vancouver), which was owned entirely by entities controlled by one family and one for the assets and business located in Vancouver, which was owned by the same family together with another seller equally.

The purchasers' joint venture was represented across Canada by Stikeman Elliott LLP by a team led by Brian Hansen and Michael Burkett and including Jonah Mann, Corinne Geller and Erisa Mara (Toronto, M&A); Mario Paura and Marc Simonik (Toronto, real estate); Stefan Fews and Mistrale Lepage-Chouinard (Montreal, real estate); Michael Yuzdepski (Calgary, real estate); Rachel Hutton, Elizabeth Jawl and Stephen Holinski (Vancouver, real estate); Larry Cobb (Toronto, environmental), Michael Kilby (Toronto, regulatory); Katy Pitch (Toronto, tax); Nancy Ramalho and Tamara Ticoll (Toronto, employment); Luc Vaillancourt (Toronto, benefits); and Ryan Sheehan (Ottawa, IP); and Craig Mitchell and Andrew Grant (Toronto, banking).

The family owning the vast majority of the business being sold was primarily represented by Aird & Berlis LLP with a corporate M&A team led by Martin Kovnats and including Jeffrey Merk, Matthew Liberatore, Andrew Magnus and Mathew Goldstein; a real estate team including Hayden Solomons, Sandra Dos Santos and Aaron Silver; a tax team including Jack Bernstein and Francesco Gucciardo and employment matters led by Barbra Miller. Regulatory counsel to the sellers for Investment Canada and Competition Act was provided by Cal Goldman, Joel Schachter and Richard Annan, and intellectual property advice was provided by Amalia Berg of Goodmans LLP. The Sellers had assistance from real estate counsel across the country; Fredric Carsley and Audrey Mulholland, De Grandpré Chait s.e.n.c.r.l./LLP (Quebec); Eric Young, Witten LLP (Alberta); and Leslie Tucker, Koffman Kalef LLP (British Columbia). The sellers' British Columbia joint venture seller was represented in British Columbia by Edwards, Kenny & Bray LLP with a team led by Brenton Kenny, QC, and including Bill Hartley and Jindy Bhalla.