John Connon

Partner

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John Connon is a partner and co-heads a business law group and the Private Equity Group at Goodmans. He has a broad transactional practice involving all aspects of corporate and securities law, with particular emphasis on private equity, public and private mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions.

John advises public companies, closely-held companies, private equity funds and their portfolio companies on a wide range of corporate transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, capital raises and governance matters.

From 1998 to 2004, John was an associate in the New York, Hong Kong and London offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

John has recently played a leading role in representing:

• Pon Holdings in its C$1.0 billion acquisition of Dorel Sports
• Tricon Residential in its NYSE IPO and concurrent US$570 million equity offering
• Tricon Residential in its US$300 million offering of preferred securities to a syndicate led by Blackstone Real Estate  Investment Trust
• Tricon Residential in its US$1.4 billion acqusition of Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 5) Core Fund
• The Miller McAsphalt Corporation in connection with its sale of Miller Paving and McAsphalt Industries to Colas Canada Inc.
• Aegis Brands in connection with its sale of Second Cup Coffee Co. to Foodtastic
• General Atlantic Partners in connection with its strategic investment in Benevity, Inc., a global provider of corporate social responsibility and employee engagement software
• The Kilmer Group in connection with the sale of the Toronto Argonauts Football Club, North America’s oldest continuously operated professional football club, to MLSE
• Open Farm in connection with an $80 million investment led by General Atlantic
• autoTRADER in connection with its strategic investments in Motoinsight and Activix and its acquistiions of LesPAC and Convertus
• Clairvest Group Inc. in connection with the sale of CRS Contractors Rental Supply Limited Partnership to Sunbelt Rentals, the North American business of Ashtead Group plc, for $275 million plus a potential earn-out
• Apax Partners in its sale of Trader Corporation, Canada’s lending digital automotive marketplace and software solutions provider, for approximately $1.575 billion
• Birch Hill Equity Partners in the sale of Bluewave Energy to Parkland Income Fund for $214 million

RECOGNITION

John is recognized as a leading lawyer by The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (repeatedly recommended in corporate finance and securities, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions), IFLR1000 (mergers and acquisitions), Best Lawyers in Canada 2022 (leveraged buyouts and private equity law, mergers and acquisitions law and securities law), and is featured in the Lexpert Special Edition: Finance and M&A 2022.  He was honoured as one of Lexpert’s Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40 in 2008.