Telus Acquires Public Mobile

Public Mobile Inc., a telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto and operating a wireless network in Quebec and Ontario, was acquired by TELUS Communications Inc.

TELUS was represented by Michel Belec, vice president, legal services; and Pier Fiorino, vice president, taxation. External counsel to Telus was provided by Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in connection with the acquisition with a team led by Robert Yalden (corporate) and including Nadir Nurmohamed, Victoria Au and Amelia Miao (corporate); Scott Horner (financial services) and Michelle Lally and Matthew Anderson (competition law/foreign investment group). TELUS retained Ian Gamble and Terry Barnett of Thorsteinssons LLP with respect to tax advice. 

Public Mobile was represented by Bob Boron, its Senior Vice President and Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer, and John Pazzano, its Associate General Counsel. McMillan LLP represented Public Mobile in connection with the acquisition with a team led by Charles Chevrette (business law) and Stephanie Robinson (financial services) and including Bruce McWilliam, Enda Wong and Pierre-Christian Hoffman (business law); Clifton Jarin (financial services) and Michael Friedman and Carl Irvine (tax). With respect to the competition and antitrust issues, Public Mobile retained McMillan with a team of Neil Campbell and Devin Anderson (competition and antitrust). Public Mobile also retained WeirFoulds LLP's Nikiforos Iatrou and Bronwyn Roe (competition and antitrust).

Torys LLP represented Thomvest Seed Capital Inc., one of the sellers, with a team led by Guy Berman and Michael Akkawi (corporate) and including (Ricco) A.S. Bhasin and Jonah Goldberg (corporate); Omar Wakil (competition and antitrust) and Andrew Wong (tax).

Stikeman Elliott LLP represented Cartesian Capital Group, LLC, one of the sellers, with a team led by John Ciardullo (M&A) and including J.R. Laffin (M&A), Michael Kilby (regulatory) and John Lorito and Katy Pitch (tax).

The acquisition received the continuing support of ZTE Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank of China.

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP represented ZTE Corporation with a team led by James Mathers (financial services) and including Shane Pearlman and Vincent Frénette (financial services); Jennifer Hefler (competition and foreign investment review) and Sean Gosnell (China-Canada cross-border issues).