Counsel to Counsel - September 2008 - (Page 4) profiles in partnership Helicopter Deal Takes Off CHC Helicopter Corporation and Ogilvy Renault LLP By Steven Andersen The all-cash transaction values CHC at CAD $3.7 billion. It is the largest buyout in the history of the oil field services industry. C HC Helicopter Corporation is one of the largest commercial helicopter operators in the world. Its core business of ferrying people and equipment to remote offshore drilling rigs requires its pilots and equipment to operate with precision in the worst of weather conditions. Perhaps it should be little surprise then that the Richmond, British Columbia-based company completed a successful buyout in a particularly stormy economy. This has been a rough year for deals. Market volatility, the credit crunch and high energy prices have made buyers wary. In fact, the acquisition of CHC by the private equity group First Reserve Corp. was one of just three public-to-private deals in North America announced in the first quarter. But some deals are weatherproof, and CHC’s position in a vital industry made it even more attractive in the current economy. “CHC is seen as an oil field service company,” explains Terence S. Dobbin, a partner at Ogilvy Renault and CHC’s lead outside counsel. “Although there has been a lot of market disruption, the price of oil has been going up and up and up. First Reserve is a private equity house that’s really focused on energy, and I think they found that CHC was a tremendous energy story. The stars aligned.” Aggressive Growth Photo by Glenn Brown The deal marks the culmination of 30 years of growth for the enterprise, which started with a single helicopter in 1977. Craig Dobbin was a Newfoundland real estate developer with a penchant for fly-fishing when he bought that first chopper to reach remote streams. An adroit businessman, he quickly found ways to hire the helicopter out while he wasn’t using it himself. Sealand Helicopters was born. “Craig Dobbin was a larger-than-life figure who built the company up,” recalls Terence Dobbin, who shares a surname but no family connection. “At meetings he used to take an unseemly delight in advising people that I was in no way related to him, which excused my behavior.” Craig Dobbin recognized early on that the Canadian helicopter industry, if it could be called that, was nascent but fragmented. He started buying up every helicopter operation he could. Each time he encountered a setback, he applied the same solution: Get bigger. In 1987 he acquired several of Sealand’s largest rivals and took the company public as CHC. Not content to be the largest Terence S. Dobbin, Ogilvy Renault LLP “ lthoughtherehasbeena A lotofmarketdisruption,the priceofoilhasbeengoing upandupandup.First Reserveisaprivateequity housethat’sreallyfocused onenergy,andIthinkthey foundthatCHCwasa tremendousenergystory. Thestarsaligned.” 04 LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell®
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.