Lawyer Profile Detail

Oliver Borgers is a partner in our Competition Law Group in Toronto. Since joining the firm’s Toronto office in 1988, he has focused on antitrust law, foreign investment review (Investment Canada Act) and mergers and acquisitions. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Borgers managed the firm’s London, UK office.

His practice centres on the application of competition laws to mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, pre-merger notifications and market conduct. Mr. Borgers led the team that obtained Competition Act and Investment Canada Act clearance for Canada’s largest transaction to date (Rio Tinto acquisition of Alcan). Mr. Borgers regularly provides strategic advice to major national and international companies on pre-merger clearance matters in a variety of industries and has extensive experience in various marketing and pricing practices, market restrictions, exclusive dealing and a host of other compliance, civil and criminal issues that arise out of antitrust law. He is also a specialist in foreign investment merger review issues arising under such statutes as the Investment Canada Act. Mr. Borgers has had extensive dealings with the Ministry of Industry and Canadian Heritage on investment matters. He regularly speaks on competition law, foreign investment and merger related topics to audiences in Canada and abroad.

Some significant matters in which Mr. Borgers has been involved include:

• Acted for Avaya in its acquisition of the Nortel telephony enterprise solutions business;
• Acting for Pepsi in acquisition of Pepsi Bottling Group;
• Acting for the Fairmont Raffles hotel company in connection with 40% investment by Voyageur Partners and strategic alliance with Qatari Diar;
• Acting for Rio Tinto in relation to BHP bid;
• GE Capital acquisition of certain Merill Lynch businesses;
• SC Johnson acquisition of Fruits & Passion franchise;
• AMD disposition of its consumer electronic businesses;
• acquisition of Alcan by Rio Tinto;
• Diageo acquisition of the Schenley Valley Distillery;
• acquisition of Four Seasons;
• acquisition of Alliance Atlantis;
• merger of Statoil ASA and Hydro ASA;
• Norilsk Nickel’s acquisition of Lion Ore;
• sale of Stelco to US Steel;
• GE Money acquisition of Hudson Bay’s credit card business;
• sale of Fairmont Hotels;
• sale of Intrawest;
• merger of AMD and ATI;
• sale of Trader Media (Auto Trader) to Yellow Pages Group;
• merger of Sony Music and BMG Music;
• merger of Maple Leaf Foods and Schneider Meats;
• sale of Northrop Grumman Canada to L3;
• takeover by Northrop Grumman of TRW Inc.;
• the acquisition by PepsiCo of Quaker Oats and Tropicana juices;
• the Canadian airline mergers (acting for American Airlines);
• takeover by Rio Tinto of North Limited and Iron Ore;
• the merger of Zeneca and Novartis to form Syngenta; and
• the merger of AstraPharma and Zeneca.

Mr. Borgers is recognized as a leading competition lawyer in the most recent editions of Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers, the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and the International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists (Competition Law Review), PLC Which Lawyer 2008, Competition Law Handbook (Practical Law Company), Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World's Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in Canada – Competition/Antitrust and the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (a guide to the leading law firms and lawyers in Canada).