Investor consortium acquires VimpelCom stake in WIND Mobile

VimpelCom Ltd. and its affiliates completed the sale of all of their debt and equity interests in the Globalive group of companies, including Globalive Wireless Management Corp., the operator of WIND Mobile, to a consortium of investors. The investor group included West Face Capital, Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LG Capital Investors, Serruya Private Equity, Novus Wireless Communications and Globalive Capital, the investment company of WIND Mobile co-founder Anthony Lacavera. This transaction is the culmination of an exhaustive review of VimpelCom’s strategic alternatives with respect to its investments in the Canadian wireless market, which took place over a period of 24 months.

VimpelCom is one of the world’s largest wireless telecommunications providers with over 220 million mobile subscribers and approximately 60,000 employees. WIND Mobile is committed to becoming the fourth national wireless carrier in Canada and has over 750,000 subscribers and approximately 1,200 employees.

Bennett Jones LLP represented VimpelCom with its strategic review process with a team led by Mark Rasile that included Christian Gauthier, Russel Drew, Tiffany Canzano, Rami Chalabi, Peter Westcott and Claire Webster (M&A/corporate); Sheridan Scott, Adam Kalbfleisch and Kyle Donnelly (regulatory); Richard Orzy and Sean Zweig (restructuring/insolvency); Thomas Bauer (tax); Jeilah Chan (intellectual property) and Carl Cunningham (employment). UBS acted as the financial advisor for VimpelCom.

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP acted as counsel to West Face Capital, with a team that included Patrick Barry, Peter Hong, Brett Seifred, Kevin Greenspoon and Zain Rizvi (M&A/corporate); Derek Vesey (financing); John Bodrug, Mark Katz and Elisa Kearney (regulatory) and Raj Juneja and Chris Anderson (tax).

Tennenbaum Capital Partners was represented by McMillan LLP, with a team that included Charles Chevrette and Andrew Walker (M&A/corporate); Jeff Rogers and Sean Brandreth (financing); Bruce McWilliam and Mark Opashinov (regulatory); Peter Giddens and Elisa Henry (intellectual property) and Michel Ranger (tax).

Globalive Capital was represented by its Chief Regulatory Officer, Simon Lockie, and Chief Financial Officer, Brice Scheschuk, and a team from Borden Ladner Gervais LLP that included Alfred Page, Jason Saltzman, William Jones and James Szumski (M&A/corporate); Howard Silverman (financing); Subrata Bhattacharjee (regulatory) and Daniel Lang (tax).

David Guin, Alan Jacobs and Mark Tice (M&A/corporate) and David Stein (tax) of Withers Bergman LLP represented LG Capital Investors.

Lawyer(s)

John D. Bodrug S. Richard Orzy Mark C. Katz Alfred L.J. Page Sheridan Scott Patrick G. Barry Derek R.G. Vesey R.D. Jeffrey Rogers Raj Juneja Peter S. Hong

Firm(s)

Bennett Jones LLP Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP McMillan LLP