General Atlantic, a US-based growth equity investor, made a strategic investment in Montreal-based Plusgrade Inc. (“Plusgrade”), a global leader powering ancillary revenue solutions for the travel industry with over 200 partners worldwide across the airline, hospitality, cruise, passenger rail, and financial services industries. This investment led Novacap to fully exit its stake in Plusgrade, while CDPQ remains a significant shareholder. As reported in The Globe & Mail, General Atlantic invested over $1 billion in Plusgrade to acquire a stake of more than 50 percent in the 15-year-old company, in a deal that values Plusgrade at over $2 billion.
Goodmans LLP acted as Canadian counsel to General Atlantic, while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as US counsel and Barclays as financial advisor. The Goodmans team was led by John Connon, and included Jay Piett, Carrie Smit, Kenneth Saddington, Colin Romano, David Rosner, Jon Wall, Dan Dedic, Samantha Melhado
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Scotiabank, and J.P. Morgan advised Plusgrade. The Davies team that advised on this transaction includes Brian Kujavsky, Jordan Altman, Vanessa Pendenza, Mathieu Taschereau, Zach Hershenfeld, Melissa Lugassy and Connor Hasegawa (Private M&A/Private Equity); Marie-Emmanuelle Vaillancourt, Taj Kudhail, Jennifer Lee and Zachary Kling (Tax); Elisa Kearney and Dajena Pechersky (Competition); Dan Wolfensohn and Kimvy Ngo (Finance); Max Jarvie (IP/Privacy); Hélène Bussières, Shari Cohen and Mark-Anthony Nakis (Employment).
McCarthy Tétrault LLP advised Novacap with a team led by Patrick M. Shea that included Laurence Cromp-Lapierre, Charles-Étienne Pressé and Thierry Côté (Corporate and Mergers & Acquisitions).
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP advised CDPQ with a team led by Niko Veilleux (Corporate), and included Veronique Fortin-Latreille (Corporate) and Manon Thivierge (Tax).
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP advised Scotiabank.
Goodmans LLP believes this transaction to be the largest foreign investment in Canadian technology in the past year.