Atrium Completes the Sale of its Active Ingredients and Specialty Chemicals Division

On May 22, 2008, Atrium Innovations Inc., a leading developer and marketer of science-based products for the health and nutrition industries, completed the sale of its Active Ingredients and Specialty Chemicals division, which offers in excess of 2,000 value-added products that include high-value proprietary active ingredients developed, acquired or in-licensed by it, to AXA Private Equity for total proceeds of US$166,400,000 in cash, subject to a post-closing working capital adjustment. Following the transaction, the main office of the Active Ingredients and Specialty Chemicals division will remain in Québec City under the leadership of its existing management team.

Atrium was represented by Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs and Secretary Manon Deslauriers, Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions Jocelyn Harvey, and Legal Counsel Étienne Morency, and by external counsel Ogilvy Renault LLP with a team that included Paul Raymond, Niko Veilleux, Steve Malas and Marie-Claude Mailloux (corporate/M&A), and Leanne Souquet (intellectual property).

AXA Private Equity was represented by external counsel SJ Berwin LLP, Paris, with a team that included Maxence Bloch and William Robert, and in Canada by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team that included Michel Gélinas, Maxime Turcotte and Vanessa Coiteux (corporate), Marie-Andrée Beaudry and Jean-Guillaume Shooner (tax), Jean Carrier, Myriam Fortin and Stéphanie Claivaz-Loranger (environmental), Hélène Bussières, Stephanie Weschler and Diana Theophilopoulos (employment and labour).