Bouclair Acquires Remaining Shares

On October 16, 2003, one of the shareholders of Montreal-based BouClair Inc. acquired all the remaining shares of BouClair from his family members and from Hudson, Ohio-based Jo-Ann Stores. The value of the deal is undisclosed. RoyNat Capital Inc., the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Royal Bank of Canada provided the financing.

The purchaser and BouClair were represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP in Montreal, with a team led by Robert Vineberg and Lloyd Perry Feldman (corporate), and included Marie Emmanuelle-Vaillancourt and Michael Kandev (tax).

The selling family members were represented by Adessky Poulin in Montreal, with a team that included Mark Adessky and Lora Cianci. Jo-Ann Stores was represented by in-house counsel Valerie Gentile-Sachs; and James Carlson of Thompson Hine LLP in Cleveland, Ohio.

RoyNat Capital was represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Montreal, with a team led by Denis Boudreault and Marc-Antoine La Rochelle (corporate). BDC was represented by Luc Richard (corporate) of Pothier Delisle. RBC was represented by Christian Sioufi and Kathy Shakibnia of Ogilvy Renault in Montreal.