1055 West Georgia St, Suite 1500, PO Box 11117, Royal Ctr, Vancouver, BC
Year called to bar: 1989 (BC)
François Tougas is a member of the firm’s transportation and competition/antitrust practices. His transportation practice focuses on railway and terminal rate and service strategy, negotiations, arbitrations, mediations, regulatory proceedings (Canadian Transportation Agency), policy, project management, government relations, and transactions. He has testified on several bills before the House and Senate Standing Committees on Transport and regularly makes policy submissions to Transport Canada, the Canadian Transportation Agency, and other federal government bodies. His competition/antitrust practice focuses on merger review before the Competition Bureau (Canada) for domestic and international mergers. He has in-depth industry experience in transportation, shipping and distribution, railways, marine and inland terminals, forestry and mining, energy, and technology. He is adjunct professor of competition law and policy at the University of British Columbia, and lectures and writes about merger review, monopsonisation, rail carrier dominance, and rail transportation economic policy. He is listed in several domestic and international directories as one of the leading transportation and competition lawyers in Canada.
On May 11, 2017, companies controlled by Waterous Energy Fund (“WEF”) acquired approximately 67 per cent of the issued and outstanding common shares of Northern Blizzard Resources Inc. (“Northern Blizzard”) from affiliates of Riverstone Holdings, LLC (“Riverstone”), and NGP Energy Capital Management, LLC (“NGP”) in a transaction valued at approximately $244 million.
On April 1, 2016, Canadian mining exploration company, Tahoe Resources Inc. (Tahoe) and Canadian gold producer Lake Shore Gold Corp. (Lake Shore Gold) completed a previously announced business combination, now valued at $945 million.
On October 28, 2015, Match.com Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of The Match Group, completed its previously-announced acquisition of Canadian online dating service Plentyoffish Media Inc. (POF) for US$575 million in cash. The Match Group, which already owns Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder and has filed its IPO on the NASDAQ, now adds POF, the largest free online dating site in the world, to its portfolio. Match is a wholly-owned subsidiary of US media and internet giant IAC/InterActiveCorp.
