On December 6, 2017, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) completed the US$500 million equity investment by Rhône Capital (Rhône) in the form of 8-year mandatory convertible preferred shares, the sale of the Lord & Taylor Fifth Avenue Flagship Building to WeWork in a transaction valued at US$850 million, and a series of strategic transactions, including agreements to lease retail space within select HBC department stores, which are intended to maximize the productivity and value of HBC’s global real estate assets and position HBC at the forefront of experiential retailing.
HBC was led by David Schwartz, in-house general counsel; and represented in Canada by Stikeman Elliott LLP, with a team comprised of Jonah Mann, Sean Vanderpol, Ryan Kirvan, Frank Selke, Bessie Qu and Julia Dmitrijeva (corporate/securities), Doug Klaassen (real estate), Dean Kraus and Jill Winton (tax), Ramandeep Grewal (regulatory), Michael Kilby and Gideon Kwinter (antitrust/competition), and Jennifer Legge and Vanessa Beamish (banking).
HBC was represented in the US by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, with a team comprised of Gordon Caplan, Russell Leaf, Michael Brandt (corporate/securities), David Drewes and Tom Henry (real estate), and Henry Cohn and Hillel Jacobson (tax).
Rhône and WeWork were represented in the US by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP with a team comprised of partners Eduardo Gallardo (M&A), Glenn Pollner (capital markets), Steven Klein (real estate), Brian Kniesley (tax), Joanne Franzel (real estate), Dennis Friedman (corporate), and associates Jarrod Murphy (corporate/private equity), Nicolas Dumont (capital markets), Sharon Makowsky (real estate), and Nina Xue (tax) and Mia Lee (corporate).
Rhône and WeWork were represented in Canada by McCarthy Tétrault LLP, with a team comprised of Robert Hansen, Sven Milelli, Adam Taylor, Scott Bergen, Andrea Kareclas, Elaine Sun, and Shauvik Shah (corporate), Patrick McCay and Yaroslavna Nosikova (tax), and Oliver Borgers and Jonathan Bitran (competition).