199 Bay St, Suite 4000, Commerce Court West, Toronto, ON
Year called to bar: 2005 (ON)
Ryan is a trusted advisor and advocate, for corporations, boards, financial institutions and individuals on their most complex and contentious disputes. Ryan has had significant experience and success defending securities class actions (often with parallel actions in the US), securities transactional disputes and securities regulatory investigations and proceedings. He has successfully litigated contested transactions, takeover bids, proxy contests, poison pills and statutory plan of arrangement proceedings. These mandates often involve oppression and derivative claims, dissent and fair value proceedings, directors’ and officers’ liability advice, governance issues and using regulatory and legal processes creatively to solve difficult problems. Ryan is regularly sought out as defence counsel on securities class actions, particularly those related to financial products, including exchange traded funds, mutual funds, syndicated mortgages and cryptocurrency. He has represented clients in investigations and proceedings before the securities commissions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization and various exchanges.
On March 14, 2019, Aleafia Health Inc. (TSX: ALEF) completed its acquisition of Emblem Corp. (TSXV: EMC) by way of a plan of arrangement under the provisions of the Canada Business Corporations Act in an all share transaction valued at approximately $172.3 million at the time of the deal’s announcement. Pursuant to the arrangement, Aleafia acquired all of the common shares of Emblem, to form a new wholly-owned subsidiary continuing as “Emblem Corp.” Following the transaction, Aleafia graduated from the TSX Venture Exchange and commenced trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
On July 31, 2018, Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (Galaxy) completed an arrangement transaction pursuant to which Bradmer Pharmaceuticals Inc., Galaxy Digital LP and First Coin Capital Corp. combined to form a new enterprise in the blockchain, digital asset and cryptocurrency space.
On March 12, 2018, HLS Therapeutics Inc. (HLS:TSXV) announced the completion of a reverse take-over of TSXV-listed Automodular Corp. to conclude HLS’s going-public transaction. The transaction was implemented by way of a Court-approved plan of arrangement under the OBCA.
On November 1, 2017, The Washington Cos. (Washington), a group of privately held North American mining, industrial and transportation businesses founded by industrialist and entrepreneur Dennis R. Washington, completed its acquisition of Dominion Diamond Corp. (Dominion) for approximately $1.5 billion.
On May 20, 2015, BCE Inc. (BCE) and Rogers Communications Inc. (Rogers) completed their acquisition of GLENTEL Inc. (GLENTEL), a Canadian-based multi-carrier mobile products distributor.
