333 Bay St, Suite 3400, Bay Adelaide Ctr, W Twr, Toronto, ON
Year called to bar: 2005
Partner in the Tax Group. Practice encompasses all aspects of income taxation that arise in corporate and commercial transactions, with an emphasis on merger and acquisition, corporate finance and real estate transactions both domestically and internationally. Extensive experience advising real estate investment trusts, private equity funds and other yield-oriented issuers on tax matters. Recent representations: Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc.’s $445 million share sale to Onex Corporation’ NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT on various matters; Minto Apartment REIT’s $230 million IPO; Pure Industrial REIT’s $3.8 billion acquisition; Mood Media Corporation’s going private transaction; and Hub International’s US$4.4 billion acquisition by Hellman & Friedman LLC. Recognized a leading tax practitioner by numerous publications including Chambers Canada, Chamber Global, Best Lawyers in Canada and The Legal 500 Canada. Honoured as one of Lexpert’s Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40 in 2017. Author of a number of articles and speaker on a variety of income tax matters, including the taxation of REITs and the SIFT rules. Works closely with the Joint Committee of Taxation in connection with REIT and land transfer tax matters.
Minto Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust (the REIT) (TSX: MI.UN) completed its initial public offering of 15,863,100 trust units at a price of $14.50 per unit (the Offering). The Offering raised gross proceeds of $230,014,950, including through exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option in full which option exercise was completed July 10. The units trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MI.UN.
Blackstone Property Partners and Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc., a subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, completed their all-cash acquisition of Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust (PIRET) for $8.10 per unit in a transaction valued at $3.8 billion including debt. Affiliates of Blackstone Property Partners and Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc. acquired 62% and 38% of PIRET, respectively.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: NWH.UN) (NorthWest) completed an offering in which NorthWest sold an aggregate of 13,133,000 trust units of the REIT at a price of $10.95 per unit, which included 1,713,000 units issued pursuant to the exercise in full of the over-allotment option granted to the underwriters of the offering by NorthWest, on a bought-deal basis.
On May 20, 2015, Vicwest Inc. (Vicwest), Kingspan Group Limited (Kingspan) and AG Growth International Inc. (AG Growth) completed a plan of arrangement whereby Kingspan (through its subsidiary) acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Vicwest and AG Growth (through subsidiary) acquired substantially all of the assets of Vicwest’s Westeel division. Pursuant to the terms of the plan of arrangement, each holder of common shares received $12.70 for each common share held. The transaction was valued approximately $360 million.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (NWH) and NorthWest International Healthcare Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (NWI) completed a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) in which NWI and NWH combined to create a leading global diversified healthcare real estate investment trust with over $2 billion of assets.
