McMillan, Koffman Kalef advising UEX's sale to Texas uranium mining firm also in deals roundup
Cross-border mining deals dominate this deals roundup, with British Columbia-based Elemental Royalties and Saskatoon energy firm UEX each entering transactions with UK and US companies, respectively. Fasken was retained as legal counsel to Elemental Royalties in its merge with UK mining firm Altus Strategies and Norton Rose Fullbright served as legal counsel to the British company. In the uranium sector, Koffman Kalef assisted UEX and McMillan advised Uranium Energy Corporation (UEC) in UEX’s sale to the Texas-based uranium mining firm.
British Columbia-based Elemental Royalties to merge with UK mining firm Altus Strategies
Elemental Royalties, a metals mining company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, agreed to merge with U.K.-based income generating mining royalty firm Altus Strategies.
Upon deal completion, existing shareholders of Elemental will own approximately 52.9 percent interest in the merged entity and Altus shareholders will own the remaining 47.1 percent.
Elemental Royalties retained Fasken Martineau LLP as legal counsel. Fasken’s team consisted of John Sabetti, Richard Steinberg, Guy Winter, Aaron Stefan, Florind Polo, Lucinda Patrick-Patel, Chloe Gill-Braun, Alexis Shamess, Zach Austin, Rachel Charney, and Taylor West.
Canaccord Genuity Limited served as financial advisor to Elemental Royalties.
Altus Strategies retained Norton Rose Fulbright LLP as UK legal counsel, with UBS as financial advisor.
"Combining Altus and Elemental will create a new, strong and dynamic income-generating champion in the mining royalty sector,” said Altus CEO Steven Poulton. “The transaction will bring significant benefits to all current shareholders and establish a compelling investment proposition to potential new institutional and other investors. Our enlarged scale and combined revenues will not only enhance our access to further high-quality royalties, but will also potentially reduce our cost of capital going forward. Shareholders of the enlarged group will also benefit from its differentiated strategy of low-cost and potential high-return royalty generation. As we succeed, we look forward to targeting medium-term capital distributions, as well as participating in further accretive consolidation opportunities in the royalty sector."
"We are very pleased to announce a compelling merger with Altus Strategies that delivers materially increased revenue, scale and market relevance to both companies,” said Elemental CEO and Director Frederick Bell. “The complementary nature of the portfolios and management teams alongside fast-growing revenue from a portfolio of predominantly producing royalties will deliver significant benefits to shareholders. In addition, the combined company will have a low-cost royalty generation business arm to complement the continuing acquisition of producing royalties. We see continuing consolidation in the royalty space as an opportunity for the enlarged group. We expect to be able to demonstrate the benefits through this merger of equals with a lower cost of capital, greater diversification and growing liquidity for shareholders."
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. Following the closing, Elemental's name will be changed to Elemental Altus Royalties Corp.
Saskatoon energy firm UEX to sell to Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp
UEX Corporation, a Saskatoon-based energy company, agreed to sell to Texas-based mining firm Uranium Energy Corporation (UEC).
Upon deal completion, existing UEC shareholders will own 86.3 percent interest in the merged entity and UEX shareholders will own the remaining 13.7 percent.
McMillan served as the legal counsel to UEC, with a Finance/Securities team comprised of Thomas Deutsch, Leo Raffin, Cory Kent, Arman Farahani, Andjela Sabet, Michael Shannon, and David Jol (articling student) and support from Ted Thiessen (Tax) and Joshua Chad (Competition).
BMO Capital Markets and Rothschild & Co. served as financial advisors to UEC.
Koffman Kalef acted as legal counsel to UEX, with TD Securities and Sprott Capital Partners as financial advisors.
UEC President and CEO Amir Adnani said, "UEC's acquisition of Uranium One Americas, Inc. in December 2021 marked the largest M&A transaction in the uranium sector in about a decade. The transaction was highly accretive for the Company, and we have seen a very positive response from our shareholders and the marketplace. The strategic acquisition of UEX has the same characteristics and will grow our diversified portfolio in the politically stable and mining friendly jurisdiction of Canada. It also marks the largest North American M&A transaction in the uranium sector following the U1A acquisition.”
UEX President and CEO Roger Lemaitre said, “The combination of UEC and UEX brings together two very strong and complementary portfolios and, in addition to a significant premium, provides our shareholders with the opportunity to participate in the continued growth of UEC. UEX shareholders will gain substantial exposure to production-ready low-cost US ISR (in situ recovery) mining assets, a substantial physical uranium portfolio, a strong balance sheet and access to capital. I look forward to seeing UEC's management team continue to execute on their growth strategy and build upon the success we have already seen with UEX's portfolio of assets."
The deal is anticipated to be completed in the third quarter of 2022.
Inovia raises largest early-stage fund thus far to back young tech companies
Inovia Capital, one of Canada’s largest venture capital firms, raised approximately $420.6 million to fund young technology companies at early stages in their growth. Reaching nearly double the investment raised for the previous financing of its kind in 2019, this early-stage fund is considered Inovia’s largest to date, despite recent tech devaluation and worsening economic market.
Existing backers include Canadian fund-of-funds HarbourVest Partners, Kensington Capital Partners, Northleaf Capital Partners and Teralys Capital, as well as Bank of Nova Scotia, Calgary’s AVAC Group, Alberta Enterprise Corp., and Quebec investors Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Fondaction, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Investissement Québec.
Three new institutional investors include Air Canada’s pension fund manager Trans-Canada Capital, British Columbia Investment Management Corp., and IA Financial Group.
“It’s the fastest fund we’ve ever raised,” Inovia partner Karamdeep Nijjar said. “There will be times when we’re deploying capital in hot markets at high valuations and times when we’re deploying capital into markets where there are relatively lower valuations. We don’t try to time the market. We just have to focus on finding quality businesses with great unit economics and solid founding teams.”
