Mourant Ozannes advises on £1.2 billion takeover

Friday 05 September 2014

Offshore law firm Mourant Ozannes has advised SNC-Lavalin Group Inc on its takeover of FTSE 250 company Kentz Corporation Limited

The takeover, which was implemented by way of a Jersey court sanctioned scheme of arrangement, valued Kentz at approximately £1.2 billion.

SNC-Lavalin is one of the leading engineering and construction groups in the world and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure, providing EPC and EPCM services to clients in a variety of industry sectors and combining these services with its financing and operations and maintenance capabilities to provide complete end-to-end project solutions. The company is has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada and is publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Kentz is a global engineering specialist solutions provider, providing engineering, construction and technical support services to clients in the energy and resources sectors for more than 90 years.

The company is incorporated in Jersey and was listed on the London Stock Exchange until the completion of its acquisition by SNC-Lavalin, which created a group with approximately 45,000 employees.

The Mourant Ozannes team advising SNC-Lavalin was led by partner Advocate James Hill and senior associates Jon Woolrich and Andrew Salisbury. Mourant Ozannes provided Jersey law advice to SNC-Lavalin on all aspects of the transaction.

Advocate Hill said: "It has been a pleasure working with SNC-Lavalin on this acquisition, which is a key milestone in their strategy to become a Tier-1 engineering and construction company. We act on the vast majority of takeovers of Jersey public companies and I am proud of the expertise we have developed in this area."

Norton Rose Fulbright acted as SNC-Lavalin's English legal advisers. Simmons & Simmons acted as Kentz's English legal advisers and Ogier acted as their Jersey legal advisers.