Warren Silversmith is a partner in the Corporate Group, and Head of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group in Montréal. Warren primarily focuses his practice on private equity and venture capital, project development and finance and mergers and acquisitions, with a particular focus on cross-border transactions. In addition to Canadian corporate entities, Warren has acted for a number of US private equity and US venture capital firms on a wide range of acquisitions and investments for clients across various industries such as technology, life sciences and consumer goods manufacturing. Prior to joining the firm in November 2003, Warren spent three years working at a leading New York City law firm.
Although global M&A activity pulled back significantly in the second quarter of 2020, there has been a remarkable resurgence of activity in the third quarter which has kept private equity firms especially busy. According to data analysis firm MergerMarket, an abundance of dry powder has enabled private equity investors to take advantage of the challenging economic conditions, such that year to date, private equity’s M&A market share stands at 19.7%, an all-time high
On February 28, 2019, Tilray, Inc. (“Tilray”), a global leader in cannabis research, cultivation, production and distribution, acquired through a subsidiary all of the issued and outstanding securities of FHF Holdings Ltd. (doing business as “Manitoba Harvest”) from Compass Group Diversified Holdings, LLC (“Compass”) and other shareholders of Manitoba Harvest, by way of a plan of arrangement pursuant to the Business Corporation Act (British Columbia).
On July 30, 2018, BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:BWXT) (BWXT), a leading supplier of nuclear components and services, completed the acquisition of the medical isotope business of Nordion (Canada) Inc. (Nordion) from private-equity owned Sotera Health LLC (Sotera Health).
On September 27, 2017, Novacap and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse) completed an investment in Pivotal Payments (Pivotal), a Québec business that specializes in payment processing solutions and merchant services (the Transaction). The Transaction values Pivotal at approximately $525 million.
On July 1, 2017, Semtech Corp. (Nasdaq: SMTC) (Semtech) a leading supplier of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, completed the acquisition of all of the outstanding equity interests of AptoVision Technologies Inc. (AptoVision), a privately-held provider of uncompressed, zero-frame latency, Video over IP solutions addressing the Pro AV market.
On August 17, 2016, BWXT Canada Ltd. (“BWXT Canada”), a subsidiary of BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:BWXT), entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire all of the shares of the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada Inc. (“GEH-C”) joint venture.
On September 16, 2016, Audax Private Equity (“Audax”), together with its co-investors and members of management of Laborie Medical Technologies (“Laborie”) completed the sale of Laborie to Patricia Industries, a subsidiary of Investor AB.
On July 10, 2015, Compass Diversified Holdings (CODI), through its subsidiary Compass Group Diversified Holdings LLC (Compass), completed the acquisition of Fresh Hemp Foods Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of hemp-based food products, operating under trade name Manitoba Harvest (Manitoba Harvest).
OMERS Private Equity (OPE), the private equity investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension funds completed the sale of Canadian healthcare IT company Logibec Inc. to US private equity firm GI Partners. Financing was provided by Macquarie Corporate and Asset Finance Lending. The acquisition price was undisclosed.
