66 Wellington St W, Suite 5300, TD Bank Twr, Toronto, ON
Year called to bar: 1998 (ON)
Susan’s practice encompasses all areas of pension and benefits law and governance. She advises clients on issues ranging from fiduciary duties and risk management, plan conversion and funding, to implementation of new plan designs. She also provides advice on the pension and benefit plan implications of corporate transactions, restructurings and insolvencies. With highly nuanced understanding of pension plan governance, Susan supports clients in developing and implementing efficient pension plan governance structures and systems. Susan is a thought leader in pension matters; she is at the forefront of the latest developments and issues affecting pension clients across Canada. Susan regularly drafts advocacy papers on emerging pension issues and provides consulting with lawmakers across Canada on areas of pension reform and guidance. She has assisted in the drafting of many other published Association of Canadian Pension Management (ACPM) Papers, including on tax reform, target benefit plan design and implementation, funding reform, annuity discharges for pension administrators, enhancing the Canada Pension Plan, as well as many other submissions to government.
On October 3, 2018, The Bank of Nova Scotia (“Scotiabank”) completed the acquisition of MD Financial Management from Canadian Medical Association (“CMA”) for a purchase price of $2.585 billion.
On May 1, 2018, Scotiabank announced the completion of its $950 million acquisition of Jarislowsky, Fraser Ltd. to create the third-largest Canadian active asset manager with $166 billion in assets under management (as of December 31, 2017).
On March 28, 2018, Platinum Equity Capital Partners IV (Platinum Equity) completed the acquisition of Husky Injection Molding Systems (Husky) from Berkshire Partners and OMERS Private Equity for $4.95 billion (US$3.85 billion). Based in Bolton, Ont., Husky is a global supplier of highly engineered injection molding equipment and services for the plastic injection molding equipment industry, and a leading provider of PET systems, hot runners, aftermarket tooling, medical molds and specialty closure molds.
On July 13, 2017, Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd. (CKP) completed the acquisition of Reliance Home Comfort (Reliance) from investment funds managed by Alinda Capital Partners (Alinda), for an equity purchase price of approximately $2.82 billion.
On March 3, 2015, Sun Life Financial Inc. and BCE Inc. announced a new agreement that further advances BCE’s pension de-risking strategy by transferring longevity risk for C$5 billion of pension plan liabilities to Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada.
Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment AG (SBO) announced its acquisition of over 67 per cent of Resource Well Completion Technologies Inc. (Resource), a Canadian oilfield service company.
An affiliate of Mattamy Homes Ltd. acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Monarch Corporation, the Canadian operations of US homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, for CAD$335 million at closing, subject to customary post-closing adjustments. Immediately prior to the closing, approximately C$235 million of cash at Monarch was distributed to a subsidiary of TMHC for total proceeds of C$570 million from the share sale. The transaction closed following the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including clearance by the Canadian Competition Bureau.
Scotiabank completed the acquisition of a 20 per cent equity interest in the financial services business of Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited for $500 million in cash. As part of the new business partnership, Scotiabank has agreed to provide a funding commitment to the financial services business of up to $2.25 billion and the parties have entered into a marketing program agreement to pursue joint marketing initiatives.
