Transaction|April 28, 2004
Manulife completes C$18 billion purchase of John Hancock Financial Services
Torys acted as counsel to Manulife, working with Dale Scott, then its general counsel, Richard Lococo, deputy general counsel, and staff lawyers Bill Dawson (regulatory) and David Kerr (securities). The Torys team included Brian Davis and Krista Hill (corporate), Blair Keefe (regulatory), Jim Welkoff (tax), Jay Holsten (competition), Ryan Barry, Josée Guibord and Justin Young.
On April 28, 2004, Manulife Financial Corporation ("Manulife") completed its C$18 billion acquisition of the Boston-based life insurer John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. The transaction provided for the issuance of Manulife common shares to Hancock shareholders at 1.1853 Manulife shares for each Hancock share. Manulife has announced that it may repurchase up to C$3 billion of its outstanding common shares. The purchase was Canada's largest cross-border takeover: the combined company has over C$355 billion in funds under management and will rank as second-largest public company in Canada, the second-largest insurer in North America and the fifth-largest insurer in the world.