1000 De La Gauchetière St W, Suite 2100, Montréal, QC
Year called to bar: 2003
François is a partner in the firm’s Business Law Department. He has been nationally recognized as a leading capital markets and US/Canada cross-border lawyer in Canada and has been named a “Rising Star” (top 40 under 40) and a “Leading Lawyer to Watch” in the area of Corporate Finance and Securities in Lexpert. François’ practice covers many areas of corporate and securities law with an emphasis on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He has experience acting for public issuers, financial institutions, investment funds, investment banks as well as industry leaders in a range of sectors including natural resources, real estate and technology. François has been involved in a variety of matters including public offerings and private placements, mergers and acquisitions (both negotiated and unsolicited) and dealer/adviser registration matters. Francois has acted for the issuer or the underwriters on a large number of recent going-public transactions, including Lightspeed, Alithya, Milestone Pharma and DavidsTea. He also regularly acts for public issuers and other leading institutions on significant M&A or financing transactions, including CAE, Neptune Wellness and Acasti Pharma.
On March 15, 2019, Lightspeed POS Inc. (Lightspeed or the Company) completed its initial public offering of an aggregate of 17,250,000 subordinate voting shares (the Shares) issued from treasury for a price of $16.00 per Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $276,000,000, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option (the Offering). The Offering was underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters co-led by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., National Bank Financial Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and included CIBC World Markets Inc., TD Securities Inc., Raymond James Ltd. and Scotia Capital Inc. (collectively, the Underwriters).
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (Valeant) acquired Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (Salix) for US$173.00 per share in cash, or a total enterprise value of approximately US$15.8 billion. The transaction closed on April 1, 2015. To partially finance the acquisition, Valeant completed equity and bond offerings, which closed on March 27, 2015. In its equity offer, Valeant issued 7,286,482 shares at a price of US$199.00 per share, for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately US$1.45 billion.
