Raphaël’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity, venture capital and fund formation. As a trusted advisor, he acts for public and private companies, boards of directors, special committees, private equity firms and sovereign funds (domestic and foreign) on a broad range of acquisitions, dispositions, securities offerings, fund formations and strategic partnerships. Raphaël has a well-established private equity practice, advising sponsors on significant and complex sponsor-backed transactions in Canada. He works with private equity funds, pension plans and other institutional investors on large-scale acquisitions, recapitalizations, take-private transactions and strategic exits. His experience includes advising on multi-billion dollar buyouts, sponsor-led divestitures, management-led go-private transactions and change of control deals involving financial sponsors. Raphaël advises on governance arrangements, shareholder structures and partnership formations, bringing practical insight and execution-focused guidance that helps sponsors and portfolio companies navigate multi-party processes, competitive auctions and cross-border complexities.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Amaya Gaming Group Inc. completed its acquisition of 100 per cent of the issued and outstanding shares of privately held Oldford Group Limited, the parent company of Isle of Man-headquartered Rational Group Ltd., the owner and operator of the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker brands, in an all-cash transaction for an aggregate purchase price of US$4.9 billion, including certain deferred payments and subject to customary purchase price adjustments.
