Sun Gro Horticulture IPO Raises $220M

Sun Gro Horticulture Income Fund raised $220.23 million from its initial public offering of units through an underwriting syndicate led by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and including CIBC World Markets Inc., RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., National Bank Financial Inc. and TD Securities Inc. The proceeds were used primarily to acquire the Sun Gro business from Hines Horticulture, Inc. The transaction closed on March 27, 2002. Sun Gro concurrently closed a $36 million senior secured credit facility with Bank of Montreal.
The fund and Hines were represented in the offering by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, with a team led by Bill Sirett (capital markets), and including Robert Kopstein (tax) and Ian Webb, Nigel Cave, Warren Learmonth, Kathleen Keilty and Nicole Garton (corporate finance) in Vancouver.
The underwriters were represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, with a team led by Jeff Lloyd in Toronto, and including Andrew McLeod and Mike Raven (corporate finance) in Vancouver and Peter Lee and Janice McCart (tax) in Toronto.
For the credit facility Sun Gro was represented by Don Bird of Borden Ladner Gervais in Vancouver. Bank of Montreal was represented by Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, with a team led by David Zacks and Alex Levine, assisted by James Beeby and Alan Hutchison in Vancouver, Yvonne McAndrew in Toronto, Stephanie Campbell in Calgary and Joanie Schwartz in Montreal. David Voechting of Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson in Winnipeg, and Lee Bell-Smith of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales in New Brunswick, assisted the FMC team.
U.S. legal matters were handled by Jason Saltzman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Toronto for Sun Gro; Cathy Patton of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in California for Hines; and Michael Durst and David Gibbons of King & Spalding in Washington.