8 | Finance
Lexpert®Ranked Lawyers
Beaudoin, Yannick
Blake, Cassels &
Graydon LLP
(514) 982-4025
yannick.beaudoin@
blakes.com
Mr. Beaudoin's
expertise embraces
infrastructure, energy-
related and project
fi nancing. He acts
for consortiums and
lenders on such
projects as the Sorel
Prison, the Hospital
Centre at the University
of Montreal and the 5
wind-farm project.
Bertoldi, Linda L.
Borden Ladner
Gervais LLP
(416) 367-6647
lbertoldi@blg.com
Ms. Bertoldi's electricity
practice includes
advising on project
development and
ownership structures,
project fi nance and
corporate fi nance,
M&A, regulatory
issues, contract
negotiations and
advising regulated
utilities and their
shareholders.
Bogden, John-Paul
Blake, Cassels &
Graydon LLP
(604) 631-3375
jp.bogden@
blakes.com
Mr. Bogden's practice
involves M&A,
corporate law and
infrastructure/projects,
including secondary
PPP sales. His clients
include traditional
private-equity funds,
fi nancial sponsors,
entrepreneurs, and a
variety of public and
private corporations.
Berg, Ira
Goodmans LLP
(416) 597-4105
iberg@goodmans.ca
Mr. Berg focuses
on P3s, alternative
fi nance projects, public
procurement and
complex construction
projects. He represents
public/private-
sector clients on
transportation, bridge
and infrastructure
projects and revenue-
generating asset
transactions.
Bogaty, Jane
Dentons Canada LLP
(514) 878-5846
jane.bogaty@
dentons.com
Ms. Bogaty's domestic
and cross-border
fi nancial services
practice involves a wide
variety of fi nancings.
She advises corporate
borrowers, individual
lenders and lending
syndicates. She also
counsels equipment
manufacturers and
distributors.
Booth, QC,
Robert (Bob) T.
Bennett Jones LLP
(403) 298-3252
boothb@
bennettjones.com
Mr. Booth's commercial
practice focuses on
energy and resources
infrastructure, serving
clients in the oil and
gas, transportation
and energy utility
businesses. He
advises on purchases
and sales, business
creation and joint
ventures.
McIver, they're eager to "re-purpose the money for another
investment or to capitalize on the return on equity that can
be made on a sale rather than a long-term 'hold.'"
Project agreements stipulate a retention period during
which equity stakeholders cannot transfer their positions.
is is usually through the construction phase.
"More and more, P3 projects are going to move past their
retention period," says Borduas. "You're going to see inter-
national contractors sell their equity stakes to private-equity
funds and pension funds, and then use the proceeds to rede-
ploy into new projects."
Canadian pension funds such as OMERS and Teachers
would certainly prefer Canadian holdings for familiarity
and regulatory reasons, says D'Arcy Nordick, partner at
Stikeman Elliott LLP. "But it's all about returns for them.
If the returns are there, they'll participate. But right now,
I don't think there's anything available at the right price,
except the 407."
In some projects, the lenders may have imposed condi-
tions that certain initial equity investors must continue their
participation, says Ella Plotkin, partner at Fasken Martineau
DuMoulin LLP.
"It depends on the sensitivity of the lenders to who is or
isn't in the project," she says. " ey may have been lending
into the project on the strength of some particular players
being behind it." Lenders want to be sure that the risk profi le
won't change with new equity investors.
e original equity partners are o en the fi nancing arms
of construction com-
panies that are the con-
tractors of the project.
Last November, for
example, HOCHTI-
EF PPP Solutions, the
German construction
and engineering fi rm,
sold 100 per cent of
its equity in Alberta
Schools Alternative
Procurement Phase II
project (ASAP II) to
Concert Infrastructure, an infrastructure investment fund
with which it had partnered in the consortium that de-
signed, built and fi nanced the schools.
Says McIver: " e appetite to take on risk and develop the
P3 project brings to the market a diff erent type of partici-
pant than somebody who is simply willing to buy the equity
once a signifi cant portion of the risk of that project has been
taken out of the equation."
Initial investors increasingly include in the project agree-
ment a right of pre-emption on the sale of their equity. "It's
"The appetite to take on risk and develop the P3 project
brings to the market a different type of participant than
somebody who is simply willing to buy the equity once
a signifi cant portion of the risk of that project has been
taken out of the equation."– COLIN MCIVER, DENTONS CANADA LLP
