Suzys Inc. acquires Retail Chains

Suzy’s Inc. a corporation operated by the owner of the retail chains Stitches, Sirens and Urban Planet acquired retail chains, Suzy Shier and L.A. Express from Suzy Shier Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of La Senza Corporation, by virtue of an asset purchase transaction. The transaction represents the acquisition of approximately 180 retail locations across Canada, and over 1,500 employees. The deal closed on July 25, 2003, and its value is undisclosed.

The purchaser was represented by Goodman and Carr LLP, with a team that included Sheldon Disenhouse, Carolyn Kolers, Nicholas Catros, Neena Gupta and Mary Ormond, and Steve Watson (competition); and Dominique Bélisle and Lucie Guimond of Desjardins Ducharme Stein Monast acted as Quebec counsel.

Suzy Shier; was represented by in-house counsel Gail Caplan and by Mendelsohn with a team that included Michael Garonce, Max Mendelsohn, Philipp Duffy and Pierre Jauvin. Minden Gross Grafstein & Greenstein LLP acted as Ontario counsel, with a team that included Robyn Kestenberg, assisted by Stephen Witten (corporate) and Marc Bissell (PPSA and sales tax). Lori Cornwall of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP handled competition law matters. Bulk sales issues were handled by Stephen Nadler of Minden Gross Grafstein & Greenstein in Ontario, and by John Hanson and Deborah Power of Cox Hanson O’Reilly Matheson in New Brunswick.

Business and consulting services associated with the retail leases were provided to the vendor by MPA Inc. and to the purchaser by Oberfeld Snowcap Inc.

The purchaser made arrangements with The Bank of Nova Scotia to provide revolving and term credit facilities and to deliver certain standby letters of credit associated with the purchase transaction. The purchaser was represented in connection with the credit facilities, by Jonathan Fleisher and Vanessa Yeung of Goodman and Carr. The bank was represented by Elizabeth Breen and Rob Assal of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP in Toronto.