Richard Shaw. (He is in Calgary.)
Government affairs: senior counsel Martin Gold and special counsel Muftiah McCartin. Financial services: Mark Plotkin. Energy: Gerald Waldron. (They are in Washington, D.C.)
Norton Rose:
Competition: Mark Jones and Jacqui Williams. (They are in London.) The firm previously advised Nexen in Canada on the $975 million sale of heavy oil assets to Northern Blizzard Resources.
—Laura King
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Maple
TMX Group
A long-running saga finally culminated on August 10, when a consortium of some of Canada's largest financial institutions completed their $3.8 billion acquisition of TMX Group Limited, bringing almost all Canadian stock markets under one firm.
By acquiring TMX, Maple Group Acquisition Corp. took ownership of the Toronto Stock Exchange, as well as a smaller exchange belonging to Alpha Trading Systems Limited Partnership, plus Canada's largest clearinghouse, CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. Maple now controls more than 90 percent of Canadian market trading.
Talks to clear the way for the deal continued for well over a year. TMX initially agreed to merge with London Stock Exchange plc. The Maple consortium was formed in response by some of Canada's financial heavy hitters, out of concern that the TMX/LSE deal would diminish Canada's trading markets. The Maple group included 13 banks, investment firms, and pension funds, including CIBC World Markets Inc., TD Securities Inc., Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec.
Maple made a hostile bid for TMX, and with the clout of the blue-chip financial sector behind it, TMX shareholders rejected the LSE offer in June 2011. TMX afterward opted to support Maple's bid.
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