On January 31, 2020, Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. completed its acquisition of Detour Gold Corporation. Pursuant to the arrangement, Kirkland acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding Detour shares and Detour shareholders received 0.4343 of a common share of Kirkland in exchange for each Detour share held immediately prior to closing. Upon closing of the arrangement, existing Kirkland and former Detour shareholders own approximately 73% and 27% of the issued and outstanding Kirkland shares, respectively.
Cassels acted as external counsel to Kirkland with a team that included Jamie Litchen, Jay Goldman, Paul Stein, Jeff Roy, Jonathan Chandler, Aimee O’Donnell and Kelly Lee (Mining, Securities and M&A), Chris Hersh (Competition & Foreign Investment), Chris Norton (Tax), Caitlin Russell and Maria Constantine (Employment & Labour), Jennifer Wasylyk, Jenna Clark and Winda Chan (Banking & Specialty Finance), and John Picone and Stephanie Voudouris (Litigation).
This deal won an Excellence Award at Lexpert’s Canadian Law Awards 2021 in the category of M&A Deal of the Year. This deal is shortlisted for M&A Deal of the Year by the 2021 IFLR1000 Canada Awards.