Dundee Acquires StrategicNova

Dundee Wealth Management Inc. acquired StrategicNova Inc. by means of an amalgamation of StrategicNova with an indirect subsidiary of Dundee Wealth Management. The deal closed on October 2, 2002. Dundee Wealth Management is controlled by Dundee Bancorp Inc. and is the parent company of Dynamic Mutual Funds, the manager of the Dynamic funds. Prior to the transaction’s completion, Dundee Wealth Management and its subsidiaries had approximately $6.8 billion of assets under management and $8.9 billion of assets under administration.

CDPQ Financial Services Inc. is a member of the group of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the entity responsible for managing the assets of the Quebec pension plan, and was the principal shareholder of StrategicNova before the transaction closed. StrategicNova and its subsidiaries had approximately $2 billion of assets under management.

Following completion of the transaction, the parent company of the amalgamated corporation and its subsidiaries now have approximately $8.8 billion of assets under management and $9.1 billion of assets under administration.

Dundee Bancorp and Dundee Wealth Management were represented by Ogilvy Renault, with a team comprised of Marc Lacourcière (corporate and securities), Jules Charette (tax), Jean Daigle (securities/mutual funds), Denis Gascon and Gail Jaffe (competition), Eric Stevens (corporate) and Elliot Shapiro (corporate and securities/ mutual funds).

John Kruk of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP represented Dundee Wealth Management and its subsidiary, Dynamic Mutual Funds, in the negotiation of ongoing investment advisory arrangements relating to the StrategicNova funds. Michael Anderson of Gowlings represented Dundee Bancorp and Dundee Wealth Management in the negotiation of matters related to Dundee Wealth’s and StrategicNova’s credit facilities with their bank.

CDPQ Financial Services was represented by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, with a team comprised of Robert Paré and Michel Boislard (corporate and securities), Pierre-Yves Châtillon (securities/mutual funds), Louis Séguin and Jan-Fryderyk Pleszczynski (corporate), René Cadieux (competition) and Alain Ranger (tax).

StrategicNova was represented by in-house counsel Amy Satov, and by Stikeman Elliott with a team comprised of André Roy and France Margaret Bélanger (corporate and securities) and Philippe Décary (corporate) in Montreal, and Kathleen Ward and Jeffrey Elliott (securities/mutual funds) in Toronto.