REGIONAL FIRM TAKES ITS PLACE AT NATIONAL TABLE

PARLEE MCLAWS USES ROBUST DEBT FINANCINGS TO MOVE ON UP

It’s not easy for regional law firms to capture a prominent spot in our quarterly Legal Post league tables.

But Parlee McLaws LLP’s work in advising on two blockbuster debt financings has put the Alberta firm not only in the top spot of our table of advisers to issuers on debt deals, but also in third place of our overall table.

Nancy Penner, counsel with Parlee McLaws, acknowledges the firm isn’t used to seeing its name alongside the big national firms at the top of our corporate finance league tables. But she’s not surprised the firm placed well in our second quarter results due to its work for CNRL. The company used the proceeds to help finance a $12.7-billion deal to buy a 70 per cent stake in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project.

The team at Parlee McLaws is proud of the work it did as Canadian advisor to the issuer on the two cross border deals, she said. One, a nearly US$3-billion ($4.04 billion) note offering, was the biggest debt deal of the quarter. The other, a $1.8-billion note financing, was the quarter’s fourth largest. Each contained three tranches. LLP ($7.03 billion), followed by Parlee McLaws ($5.84 billion), McCarthy Tétrault LLP ($4.43 billion) and Stikeman Elliott LLP ($2.21 billion).

Blakes was also the busiest firm for advising issuers. By deal flow, Blakes worked on 22 deals, followed by McCarthy (13 deals), Stikeman (12), Osler (seven), and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP (six).

“Each of our offices was firing on all cylinders in Q2. In terms of number of offerings, it was our best quarter since 2013,” Moncik said.

Osler was the busiest firm in terms of advising underwriters on combined debt and equity deals. It also topped the table in terms of deal value. Osler worked on 12 deals that raised $7.09 billion for the underwriters’ clients.

Much of the deal flow activity at Blakes was centred in the equity market. Blakes worked on 17 deals worth a combined $7.44 billion, enough to top that table for both deal value and deal flow.

The biggest equity deal of the quarter was a $3-billion common share offering by Blakes was Canadian advisor to the issuer and Norton Rose Fulbright was Canadian advisor to the underwriter.

Blakes topped our table for advising underwriters on equity deals both in terms of deal flow and deal value. It worked on 10 deals that raised $4.19 billion for the underwriters’ clients.

Looking ahead, Canadian lawyers are optimistic that Canada’s strong economy will lead to more equity work. “Our pipeline doesn’t suggest we are at a saturation level yet for new issues on the equity side,” said Jeffrey Singer of Stikeman Elliott LLP.

Indeed, Canada’s surging economy certainly played a role in the debt business. Debt financing got a bit of a push toward the end of the quarter, as strong economic data raised the odds the Bank of Canada would finally hike its policy interest rate for the first time in seven years. The interestrate increase would ultimately take place on July 12.

“There was a real push in June to get deals done. We did a lot of debt deals in the private market, especially in June, because there was the anticipation that rates would go up. A lot of issuers wanted to lock in before rates went up,” said Andrew Parker, co-head of the national capital markets practice at McCarthy.

As noted, Parlee McLaws topped our table of legal advisers to debt issuers, with its two deals for CNRL worth $5.84 billion. Blakes was the busiest firm, working on five deals.

Osler worked for the underwriters on that big $4-billion CNRL debt offering. It’s therefore no surprise that Osler topped the deal value ranking on our table of advisers to underwriters on debt deals. Osler, McCarthy and Stikeman were in a three-way tie for deal flow. Each firm worked on three financings in this category. “Our pipeline doesn’t suggest we are at a saturation level yet for new issues on the equity side,” said Jeffrey Singer of Stikeman Elliott LLP.