Waddell & Reed Acquires Mackenzie Investment Shares

Kansas City, Missouri-based Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. entered into an agreement, on August 29, 2002, to acquire the shares of Florida-based Mackenzie Investment Management, Inc. (MIMI) from Toronto-based Mackenzie Financial Corporation and the public shareholders of MIMI in a transaction valued at approximately US$74 million. The deal closed on December 16, 2002. At closing, Waddell & Reed and Mackenzie Financial entered into a sub-advisory agreement under which Waddell & Reed will act as investment advisor to several of Mackenzie’s universal funds.

Waddell & Reed was represented in Canada, by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, with a team that included Linda Currie, John Black, Colin Berryman and Lynne Woollcombe (mergers & acquisitions and investment funds) and Daniel MacIntosh (tax); and in the U.S., by Alan Bogdanow, Kyle Fox and Amy White of Vinson & Elkins LLP in Dallas.

Mackenzie Financial and MIMI were represented in-house by Sian Brown, senior vice-president and general counsel, Mackenzie Financial; Joseph Fleming, Stephen Costalas, Tracy Soehle and Chris Karras of Dechert LLP in Boston; and Frank Allen, Robert Black, John Hall, Gordon Raman, Michael De Cosimo and Dyana McLellan of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Toronto.