Heico Purchases Ivaco Businesses

Effective December 1, 2004, the Heico Companies, LLC, a US-based holding company with an established acquisition track record, completed its acquisition of the assets of Canadian steel giant Ivaco Inc. and of several Ivaco subsidiaries for $375 million. Ivaco has been in CCAA protection since September 16, 2003. The assets included four manufacturing plants at locations in Ontario and in Quebec with a combined employment of over 2,200 employees.

Ivaco carried on business as a North American producer of steel, fabricated steel products and precision machined components. Ivaco’s modern steel operations included Canada’s largest rod mill. The Ivaco businesses are projected to increase Heico’s annual revenues to $2.5 billion. The acquisitions will expand the number of employees to approximately 11,000. The Heico group of companies is in the top 100 privately-held companies in the US.

Heico was represented in Canada by Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, with a team led by Bruce Leonard (business reorganization), which included Jason Bullen and Cheryl Silver (business), Marc Mercier and Lori Prokopich (financial services), David Ward, Shahana Kar and Linda Knol (business reorganization), Lorne Saltman and Marc Weisman (tax), Rick Angelson and Carrie Hardy (real estate), Stephen Morrison and Michele Wright (environmental), Carol Anne O’Brien (competition), John O’Reilly (labour and employment) and Jason Klein (intellectual property); and by McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Chicago, with a team composed of Stanley Meadows, Helen Friedli, Brooks Gruemmer and John Schetz (corporate), Todd Wiener (environmental) and Michael Boykins (financial services).

Ivaco was represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with a team composed of Jay Swartz (restructuring), Matthew Gottlieb (litigation), Gillian Stacey, Rosemary Newman, Melanie Koszegi, Karine De Champlain, Conrad Druzeta, Robert Druzeta and Brooke Jamison (corporate), Jeffrey Lem (real estate), Claire Kennedy and Paul Lamarre (tax), Alexandria Pike (environmental), Richard Elliott and Lori Cornwall (competition) in Toronto, and Denis Ferland and Alain Roberge (insolvency), Michel Pelletier (environmental), Louise Patry (employment), Dominic Nadeau (corporate and real estate) and George Pollack (transportation) in Montreal. Ivaco was also represented by Charles Hurdon (labour) and Martin Rochette (pensions) of Ogilvy Renault.

UBS Securities LLC acted as advisor to Ivaco and UBS was represented by Mario Forte of Ogilvy Renault.

Heico’s financing for the transaction was provided by a syndicate of lenders led by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, Toronto branch, as agents who were represented by Kyle Henderson and Mark O’Meara of Chapman and Cutler LLP in Chicago, Michael Wunder, Ron Matheson, Anita Joshi and Le Nguyen (financial services) and Christopher Steeves (tax) of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto, and by Charles Reagh of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales in Halifax.

Ernst & Young, Inc. of Toronto is the court-appointed monitor in Ivaco’s CCAA proceedings and is represented by Peter Howard, Ashley Taylor and Timothy Banks of Stikeman Elliott LLP.