Sale of a Minority Interest to Strategic Partner
Industry: Insurance.
Company Profile: Hayhurst Elias Dudek Inc. ("HED") is the largest independent insurance broker in Manitoba and one of the largest independently-owned insurance brokers in Canada.
HED’s head office is located in Winnipeg, with additional offices in Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. HED operates three core product segments:
Commercial Property & Casualty; Life and Health; and Pet Health Insurance, through its subsidiary SecuriCan General Insurance Company.
NewPoint’s Role: NewPoint was engaged as the exclusive financial advisor to assist the company in completing a transaction which involved
the sale of a minority equity interest to Western Financial Group, raising of additional senior debt facilities from its existing lender, Bank of Montreal,
and the repayment of debt and purchase of equity owned by an institutional financial investor, VenGrowth Private Equity Partners.
Transaction Snapshot: The goal of the majority shareholders was to replace the company’s institutional financial partner with a strategic partner
as part of a longer term succession plan. Key contributions of NewPoint were: the negotiation of certain terms of the shareholders agreement with
Western Financial dealing with future share purchase rights of the respective parties; and negotiation of the price of the equity which was acquired from
VenGrowth.
