One of the historical Seven Sisters, Blake Cassels & Graydon was founded in 1856. Since then, the full-service firm has grown to five Canadian locations: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Montréal and Ottawa. It has also added two international locations in New York and London.
The firm is a powerhouse across the board in the corporate and project development practice areas.
Its financial services practice area advises clients on regulatory and transactional matters. On the transactional banking end, the firm represents borrowers and lenders with refinancing, credit facilities and acquisition financing.
The team is also a leader in project financing transactions, where it also represents both borrowers and lenders. In financial regulatory services, the firm
largely represents financial and insurance institutions.
The capital markets team advises issuers and underwriters on a variety of equity, debt and structured finance and derivatives matters ranging from bond issuances to public offerings to securitisations.
The M&A team works with strategic acquirers, sellers and private equity firms on acquisitions and corporate reorganizations.
The restructuring and insolvency team acts on all sides of CCAA, BIA and other out of court restructuring proceedings. This includes debtors, lenders, monitors, receivers and trustees. It also acts in restructuring and insolvency related stalking horse bids and acquisitions.
The firm has strong relationships with many multinational companies including Kinder Morgan, Hudson’s Bay Company, BHP and Glencore It also has
numerous financial institutions as key clients, including
Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and
Royal Bank of Canada.
Research period review: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
During the research period, the banking team represented mostly lenders in corporate, real estate and acquisition financings, as well as refinancings. The team also worked on numerous project financings,
largely within the renewable energy industry, namely wind and solar, but also within traditional energy. The financial services regulatory team continued to act for clients in the financial services industry on bank acquisitions, payments, acquisitions, AML and financings.
In capital markets, the team worked on debt and equity transactions, acting
largely for issuers. In debt capital markets, work included investment grade, green and high yield bond offerings. On the equity capital markets side, the team worked on private placements,
IPOs and at-the-market offerings.
The M&A team acted for acquirers, sellers and targets in high value acquisitions, mergers and carveouts across
numerous industries in both strategic and private equity acquisitions.
In project development, the team acted for developers in projects within the infrastructure and energy industries. Infrastructure projects include transportation such as railways and social infrastructure such as hospitals.
The restructuring and insolvency team represented monitors, debtors and creditors in CCAA proceedings, as well as out of court restructurings.
Regarding team composition changes in the period,
partner Donald Gray retired.
Deal highlights: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
GIC and Dream Industrial REIT
$6 billion acquisition financing
Pembina Pipeline/KKR C$12 billion joint venture
Royal Bank of Canada’s C$13 billion acquisition of HSBC Bank Canada
