Miller Thomson has successfully closed the transaction for the sale of the shares of our client H.J. O’Connell Limited to Bird Construction on August 31, 2011. This major and complex transaction, involving a purchase consideration of about $80 million, was built on many years of close association with O’Connell leadership as they grew their established local Quebec based construction outfit into a major player in its marketplace which now includes dams in Manitoba and major mine-work in Northern Québec and Labrador. The value of the transaction to the management team was also greatly enhanced by the insightful tax and corporate structure put in place over the years by Richard Barbacki with Nathalie Marchand.
Our Mergers & Acquisition team here included Fred Braman as team leader, working principally with Lucie Kouyoumijian and Alain Laplante, ably assisted by paralegal Rose Scolieri, assistant Carmen Hay and (then) stagiaire Gabrielle Gélineau. Our tax team of Richard and Nathalie were involved at all times. On the Competition Act aspects, Andrew Roman (Toronto) , helped guide our pre-merger notification through the Bureau and we were backed up on Ontario law aspects by David Borges and Gregory Hanmer (Kitchener).