B2B Trust Acquires MRS Companies

B2B Trust, a subsidiary of Laurentian Bank of Canada, announced that, all required regulatory authorizations having been received, it finalized the transaction where it acquired 100 per cent of M.R.S. Trust Company and M.R.S. Inc. from Mackenzie Financial Corporation (“Mackenzie Investments”), a subsidiary of IGM Financial Inc. The acquisition price at closing was $199 million, based on a book value of shareholders' equity of $149 million and a premium of $50 million.

B2B Trust's in-house team was led by Lorraine Pilon, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Human Resources and Secretary of Laurentian Bank, and Sophie Bossé, Assistant Vice President, Legal Affairs. B2B Trust was represented by Norton Rose OR LLP with a team that included Marc Duquette (regulatory); Sara Joli-Coeur, Karine Fadous and Meghan Stewart (corporate/M&A); Derek Chiasson (tax); Christine Dubé, Ron Kugan and Graham Erion (securities/regulatory); Thierry Dorval (competition); Michael Horvat (employment) and Martin Rochette (pensions and benefits).

Mackenzie Investments' in-house team was led by Geoffrey Creighton, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of IGM Financial Inc, and David Burbach, Vice President, Legal at Mackenzie Financial.

Mackenzie Investments was represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP with a team that included David Valentine, Jennifer Woo and Paul Bent (corporate/M&A); Kathleen Penny and Edward Miller (tax); Paul Belanger (regulatory); Michael Sharp (securities/regulatory); Robert Kwinter and Litsa Kriaris (competition); Gary Daniel and Dana Siddle (intellectual property); Abdul-Basit Khan (employment); Jeff Sommers (pensions and benefits) and Parna Sabet-Stephenson (information technology).