On July 13, 2017, Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd. (CKP) completed the acquisition of Reliance Home Comfort (Reliance) from investment funds managed by Alinda Capital Partners (Alinda), for an equity purchase price of approximately $2.82 billion.
CKP, a publicly traded Hong Kong company controlled by the family of Li Ka-shing, completed the acquisition through its subsidiary CKP (Canada) Holdings Ltd. Reliance is Canada’s largest water heater rental business and a leading provider of essential home infrastructure and services to homeowners in Canada. Reliance provides retail sale, rental, service and maintenance of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment to its 1.7 million residential and commercial customers.
CKP was represented by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team that included Michael Burkett, Daniel Howard, Alethea Au and Ellen Dalicandro (M&A), Michael Kilby, Bill Wu and Gideon Kwinter (regulatory), John Lorito and Ryan Abrahamson (tax), Kathleen Chevalier and Alex Lemoine (employment), Andrea Boctor and Aiden Talai (pensions), Mario Paura and Chad Bass-Meldrum (real estate), and Larry Cobb and Laura Delemere (environmental).
Alinda was represented by Torys LLP with a team that included Krista Hill, Sharon Geraghty, Konata Lake, Addie Buhr, Stephen Neil, Aleksandra Ramsvik and Min Kim (M&A), Corrado Cardarelli and Andrew Wong (tax), Amanda Balasubramanian and Adrienne Love (debt financing), Dany Assaf, Rebecca Moskowitz and Marina Chernenko (competition and foreign investment review), Susan Nickerson, Jennifer Lennon and Brad Tartick (employees, pensions and benefits), and Don Roger and Christine Innes (real estate).
Reliance was represented by an in-house counsel team that included Jack Cook.