Brown, Darryl J.
Gowling Lafleur
Henderson LLP
(416) 369-4581
darryl.brown@gowlings.com
Mr. Brown's practice focuses
on infrastructure, P3 and
construction law. He dras
and negotiates project
agreements, construc-
tion contracts, operating
agreements and other
contracts, and regularly
represents sponsors, oper-
ators and design builders.
Callaghan, Frank S.
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
(416) 367-6014
fcallaghan@blg.com
Mr. Callaghan's corporate
practice focuses on project
finance, securities, M&A,
corporate finance and
commercial transactions.
He represents domestic
and foreign companies,
shareholders, issuers, banks
and asset-based lenders.
Cusano, Luigi A. (Lou)
Torys LLP
(403) 776-3797
lcusano@torys.com
Mr. Cusano's practice focuses
on administrative, regula-
tory and environmental law
and commercial litigation
in the energy sector (elec-
tricity and oil and gas).
Bursey, David W.
Bennett Jones LLP
(604) 891-5128
burseyd@bennettjones.com
Mr. Bursey's regulatory
practice focuses on energy
and infrastructure, environ-
mental assessment, water
resource management and
Aboriginal law. He advises
natural resource industry
clients, First Nations and
government agencies.
Carson, Lorne W.
Osler, Hoskin
& Harcourt LLP
(403) 260-7083
lcarson@osler.com
Mr. Carson, also an engin-
eer, focuses on domestic
and international project
development as well as bank
and capital markets finan-
cing in the infrastructure,
electrical power and other
sectors. His experience
embraces multi-party
and joint ventures.
D'Amour, Normand
Miller omson LLP
(514) 871-5487
ndamour@millerthomson.com
Mr. D'Amour is a leading law-
yer in construction law, special-
izing in writing and negotiating
contracts, interpreting statutes,
litigation, mediation and arbi-
tration. He regularly represents
clients before courts of law,
arbitrators and mediators.
FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURE
|
9
"THE BIG JAPANESE
AND KOREAN CONGLOMERATES I THINK ARE QUITE
INTERESTED IN DOING BUSINESS IN NORTH AMERICA
AND P3 IS A FAIRLY ATTRACTIVE INVESTMENT.
WHILE IT'S NOT RISK-FREE, IT'S PROBABLY
A REASONABLE RETURN FOR THE LEVEL OF RISK."
– Greg Lewis, Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP
pensive piece of financing, so that's helping
drive down costs as well.
When it comes to raising money, the
European banks have been much less ac-
tive in Canada's P3 market than they were
before the financial crisis. But the Canadian
market has had no trouble picking up the
slack and digesting the financing levels re-
quired, says Nick Williams, a partner in the
infrastructure group at Davies Ward Phil-
lips & Vineberg LLP.
Williams says he'd be surprised to see
large Canadian infrastructure deals actively
marketed and sold in the US, at least in the
near term.
"ere's a huge appetite for this kind
of debt just amongst the Canadian insti-
tutional investors — the lifecos, pension
funds and some of the other investment
funds. Obviously, when you start market-
ing the deal in the US you've then got to
comply with various US securities-law re-
quirements, and it complicates the deal.
I just don't think there's been the need.
Could that change with something like the
Champlain Bridge, which has a larger debt
requirement? Possibly."
If anything, says Williams, the larger size
of the massive new transportation- and
transit-related projects should attract new
sources of capital on the equity side.
"On a $1-billion project, which was a
large PPP project in Canada, you'd prob-
ably have been looking at $100 million of
equity split a couple of ways, which is not
a big cheque. e work involved in that is
probably not going to attract a lot of atten-
tion from the large pension funds.
"If you've got a much larger project with
a much larger equity component dollar-
wise, that may attract some of the larger
pension funds. And other institutional
investors may decide this is more interest-
ing. ere are certainly sovereign wealth
funds I've talked to over the years that will
come in and say, 'We're looking to invest
in infrastructure but our minimum deal
size is a $250 million.' ese projects tend
not to be large enough to warrant that sort
of investment.
"e big pension funds, the OMERS,
Teachers, the Caisse, CPPIB, have also
tended to stay away from the smaller P3s.
ey've been doing more direct investing
in infrastructure — they can go and pur-
chase and own a larger infrastructure asset
rather than putting $50 million into a P3.
But when you get to a larger size, if it's a big
enough ticket, I think it could certainly be
more attractive to them."
