National Bank Acquires Altamira

National Bank of Canada acquired, on August 12, 2002, Altamira Investment Services Inc. for $467.3 million, including repayment of $201.6 million in debt; $8.25 million of the purchase price was paid in the form of 271,000 National Bank of Canada shares.

Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP acted for National Bank, with a team led by John Evans, Donald Gilchrist and Desmond Lee (mergers and acquisitions), John Black (securities regulatory), John Jason (Bank Act) and Daniel MacIntosh and Alex Pankratz (tax), along with Michèle Jenneau, manager, corporate affairs, National Bank of Canada.

Altamira was represented by in-house counsel Peter Rizakos, working with McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a team that included Rene Sorell, David Armstrong, Brian Graves, Ian Michael, Colette Walker, Marwan Awad and Suzanne Murphy (mergers and acquisitions), Jerald Wortsman (tax) and Sean Sadler and Michael Valihora (securities regulatory).

Altamira’s institutional and founding shareholders, which included Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Alberta Treasury, Bell Canada, Canadian National Railway Pension Fund and Ontario Hydro Pension Plan represented more than 50 per cent of the share value, were advised by Heenan Blaikie LLP, with a team consisting of Richard Lewin and Nancy Dubé (tax) in Montreal and Michael Ledgett and Andrea Safer (mergers and acquisitions).

Fogler, Rubinoff LLP acted for the former management of Altamira, with a team that included Lloyd Fogler, Q.C., and Elliott Vardin.