Oliver J. Borgers

Oliver J. Borgers

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 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:

· 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 and previous restructuring of Stelco Inc.;

· GE Money acquisition of Hudson Bay's credit card business;

· sale of Fairmont Hotel;

· 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 merger of some of the largest mutual funds companies in Canada;

· 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).

Mr. Borgers is also listed in the top tier of the Investment Canada (foreign investment review category) in the most recent edition of Chambers Global: the World's Leading Lawyers.

He has authored a number of articles with Yves Bériault including, "Overview of Canadian Antitrust Law" and "Canadian Merger Control," both published in The Antitrust Review of the Americas 2007, and the Canadian Chapter of Global Counsel's Competition Law Handbook.

Mr. Borgers speaks English, French, German and some Spanish and is qualified as an English solicitor. He is a member of the American and International Bar Associations, the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht (German Antitrust Law Association), past chair of the Mergers Committee of the CBA's National Competition Law Section and co-founder and vice-chair of the Foreign Investment Review Committee. He is also a founding director of the Canadian-German Lawyers Association.

Mr. Borgers received his BA (Philosophy) in 1983 from the University of Toronto, his LLB in 1986 from the University of Ottawa and his LLM in 1988 from the University of Toronto. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1988 and became a member of the Law Society of England and Wales in 1995.