Views From the Market

In this installment, Mario Nigro is joined by Daniel Howard of Aon in Toronto. Daniel leads Aon’s transaction solutions team, with a focus on representation and warranty insurance. RWI has become a fixture of the Canadian deal market and is now becoming commonplace even for deals in the $20-$50 million range. As Daniel notes, in many transactions RWI is entirely taking the place of seller indemnities other than for fraud. Canada is quickly catching up to the U.S., where the use of RWI is nearly universal.

In this edition of the podcast, Mario Nigro speaks with Vanessa Iarocci about her transition from the M&A group of a large bank to an entrepreneurial career as CEO and business owner. Vanessa discusses how her passion for education led her, through a search fund process, to Brainpower Enrichment Programs, a growing company that provides supplementary educational experiences for high-achieving students. Among many other things, the conversation touches on some of the obstacles and opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Canada.

Mario’s guests today are Asim Qureshi and Karim Kanji. Their company, OneWorld Foods Inc., has risen in just a few short years from an idea to a supermarket success story by meeting growing market demand for high-quality prepared South Asian and halal foods (under the “Tandoori Oven” and “One World” brands). In the podcast, Karim and Asim discuss the challenges they have overcome, the decision to seek outside financing, and their plans for the post-pandemic future.

In this episode, Mario Nigro is joined by Mike Fenton, President and CEO of the Toronto chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, ACG Toronto, along with the organization’s other Canadian chapters, plays both a thought leadership role and a practical role as a preeminent forum for midmarket deal networking in this country. Mike speaks with Mario about the ACG’s history, its evolution during the pandemic and its plans for the future.

In this podcast, Mario Nigro speaks to the co-founders of Media One Group, Corey Peck and Derek Rider. While still a relatively young creative agency, Media One boasts an impressive roster of major corporate clients. Over the past few years, Corey and Derek have built on their success by turning to acquisitions, including cross-border M&A, to expand Media One’s capabilities and global reach. This bold strategy is playing a critical role in the transformation of their Toronto-based business into a worldwide brand. Thank you for tuning in to Views from the Market. 🔗 To stay connected and receive the latest updates, subscribe to our podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts 🔗 Follow Stikeman Elliott on LinkedIn for more insights 🔗 For more information and resources, visit stikeman.com/viewsfromthemarket

Mario’s guest in this episode is Federica Nazzani, Managing Partner of Capital Assist (Valuation) Inc. Federica, who is both a CPA and a chartered business valuator, advises businesses on valuation issues arising in potential sale and acquisition scenarios as well as at other points in the business cycle. She and Mario discuss the importance of professional advisors as sounding boards for business owners, particularly in times of uncertainty.

Michael Teplitsky of Chicago-based Wynnchurch Capital joins Mario Nigro to discuss the private equity firm’s long history of investments in Canada, which extends into its current (fifth) fund. According to Michael, Wynnchurch focuses mainly on industrial and consumer products sectors and has the ability to make both smaller and more substantial investments. He is optimistic that the strong M&A market will continue in 2022 on both sides of the border.

Joining Mario Nigro for this episode of the podcast is Jean-Lou Paquet, Partner at private equity firm BDG & Partners. Founded in 2015, BDG invests mainly in the lower midmarket. While it is “sector agnostic”, BDG tends to focus on well-established traditional industrial businesses that may not recently have focused on growth opportunities.

Jennifer Chasson, President of Springbank Capital, joins Mario Nigro to discuss her M&A experiences in the lower midmarket space over the past two years. Jennifer’s clients, mainly “old economy” businesses, have attracted unprecedented attention during the pandemic, often selling at high multiples as a wider range of investors see the value in stable businesses with tangible assets.

In this podcast, Mario is joined by Garrett Clyne and Elling Dahlen, who founded private equity firm Cassiar Partners in 2020. Cassiar focuses on developing new growth strategies for small and medium-sized Canadian companies in traditional industries. Leveraging the experience of Cassiar’s diverse investor base has been one key to its early success.