John-Paul Bogden
Partner | Vancouver
jp.bogden@blakes.com
Vancouver: 604-631-3375

John-Paul (JP) has a practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, infrastructure and projects work, and general corporate law. He co-leads the Firm's Private Equity Group, which has been recognized by Lexpert and Chambers Canada as one of Canada's leading private equity practices.

A significant portion of JP's practice involves working with:

  • private equity funds (including buyout, infrastructure and venture capital funds) and their portfolio companies in investment, add-on, recapitalization and exit transactions;

  • technology-based businesses in relation to both financing and M&A matters; and

  • investment banks and other corporate finance professionals in relation to M&A and financing transactions.

JP is also frequently engaged as special M&A counsel by companies and investment banks undertaking competitive auction processes.

For several years, JP has been recognized as a leading Canadian corporate and M&A lawyer by multiple league table and ranking guides. Most recently, JP was ranked by Chambers Canada as one of British Columbia's leading corporate lawyers, and as the only British Columbia lawyer in the Private Equity: Buyouts category, with clients noting that he "brings great common sense to the table", is an "absolute pleasure to deal with", and is “very conscious of providing good value".

SELECT EXPERIENCE

Representative transactions in which JP has been involved include:

Private Equity

  • Frontier Capital's acquisition of Agreement Express

  • CAI Capital's acquisitions of Canadian Heating Products and CustomAir

  • Foley's Candies on its sale to Yellow Point Equity Partners

  • Norwest Venture Partners' investment in Medgate Inc. and ACL Services Inc.

  • Apax Partners' acquisition of Ideal Proteins

  • Fulcrum Capital Partners on numerous private equity transactions, including its investment in Vitalus Nutrition, its acquisition of Canstar Restorations and the sale of A & B Rail Services to TorQuest Capital and other institutional investors (selected by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) as the 2014 Private Equity Deal of the Year)

  • Macquarie Essential Assets Partnership's sale, via a controlled auction process, of its equity interests in the Sea-to-Sky Highway project and the Edmonton Ring Road project to a Fiera Axium-led consortium

  • Vista Equity Partners' sale of the Communities and Sports divisions of its portfolio company, Active Networks

  • AEA Investors' acquisition of Salbro Bottle and Taipak Packaging through its portfolio company, TricorBraun

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Instacart’s acquisition of Unata Inc.

  • Verico Financial Group’s sale to M3 Mortgage Group

  • Transferra Nanosystems’ sale to an affiliate of Evonik Industries

  • Twitter's acquisition of Summify

  • BrightSide Technologies' sale by way of plan of arrangement to Dolby Laboratories

  • Confidential buyer’s acquisition of a significant seniors home business

Infrastructure and Projects

  • Shell Canada in connection with its role in the LNG Canada joint venture proposing to build and operate a LNG export terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia

  • SNC-Lavalin in its successful bid for the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project in Campbell River, British Columbia

  • Concert Infrastructure, Bird Construction and Bird Capital in their successful bid to construct, finance and maintain nine P3 schools in Saskatchewan

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

JP is recognized as a leading Canadian lawyer by the following publications:

  • Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business (Corporate-Commercial - 2016-2019, Private Equity: Buyouts - 2019)

  • The Best Lawyers in Canada - 2013-2019 (Corporate Law and Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law)

  • The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada 2018 (Corporate Commercial Law)

  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory - 2012-2018 (Corporate-Commercial, Corporate Mid-Market, Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity)

  • The 2016 Lexpert Guide to the Leading US/Canada Cross-Border Corporate Lawyers in Canada (Mergers & Acquisitions)

  • Business in Vancouver's "Forty under 40" (Recognized as one of Vancouver's top executives and professionals under 40)