John is a partner in McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s Business Law group in Calgary and a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. John’s practice focuses on M&A and securities and corporate law matters for senior issuers. He has extensive experience structuring and advising issuers and underwriters in various types of public offerings and private placements of debt and equity. He advises public corporations on a wide variety of securities and corporate finance matters including corporate governance, M&A and dealings with securities regulators and Canadian and US stock exchanges. John has also advised special committees and boards of directors on corporate governance and corporate securities matters and has advised corporations in connection with proxy fights and other shareholder disputes.
Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB)(NYSE:ENB) (Enbridge) completed its stock-for-stock transaction with Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE:SE) (Spectra Energy), creating North America’s largest energy infrastructure company with an enterprise value of approximately $165 billion. The transaction valued Spectra Energy’s common stock at approximately $37 billion and is the largest foreign acquisition ever completed by a Canadian company.
On March 1, 2016, Enbridge Inc. closed a bought deal offering of common shares by a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, BMO Capital Markets, CIBC World Markets, Scotiabank, and TD Securities. Gross proceeds from the offering totaled approximately $2.3 billion.
On September 1, 2015, Enbridge Inc. announced the closing of the transfer of its Canadian Liquids Pipelines business, comprised primarily of Enbridge Pipelines Inc. and Enbridge Pipelines Athabasca Inc., and certain Canadian renewable energy assets (the Transaction) to an indirect subsidiary of Enbridge Income Fund (the Fund) for $30.4 billion together with certain Incentive/Performance Rights. A joint special committee (the Special Committee) of the Board of Directors of Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (EIFH) and the Board of Trustees of Enbridge Commercial Trust (ECT) was formed to review and consider the Transaction, conduct due diligence and negotiate the terms of the Transaction on behalf of EIFH, the Fund and ECT.
On April 2, 2015, Baytex Energy Corp. completed a public offering of 36,455,000 common shares including 4,755,000 common shares pursuant to the full exercise of the over-allotment option, at a price of $17.35 per share for approximate gross proceeds of $632.5 million.