Norm Saibil is the Office Managing Partner of the Montréal office of Blakes. His practice concentrates on financing, acquisitions, real estate, restructuring, commercial and business law.
Norm has been recognized in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2010 in the banking and property development practice areas and in The 2010 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada in the area of banking. He is listed in and ranked by Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2010 as one of the leading banking and finance lawyers in Canada. He is also listed in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers 2009 in the area of banking law in Canada, in Law Business Research's Who's Who Legal: Canada 2010 (a special report identifying Canada's leading lawyers), in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada in banking law, corporate law, project finance and real estate law, and in the 2009 edition of Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Banking Lawyers 2009.
Norm acts on a regular basis for major Canadian corporations and chartered banks. His practice includes:
- Representing lenders and corporate borrowers
- Acquisitions and dispositions of businesses
- Real estate development and financing including emphyteutic leases, joint ventures, consortium, shareholders and management agreements
Matters on which Norm has worked include:
- Sale leaseback offering of nine Government of Canada office properties
- Sale of the InterContinental Montréal hotel for C$49-million
- Syndicated financing for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited
- Acting for an international banking syndicate in a US$1-billion financing for Canadian National Railway Company and certain of its Canadian and U.S. subsidiaries
- Acting for Dundee REIT in connection with the acquisition and financing of 13 buildings in Technoparc Saint-Laurent
- Acquisition of development site for Lac Mirabel retail and entertainment complex
- Acting for Legacy Hotels in the C$115-million financing of the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montréal
- Acting for TD Bank on the financing of the acquisition by Boralex Power Income Fund of two hydroelectric facilities in New York State
- Oxford's C$210-million acquisition (shares and assets) of the Canderel office and industrial portfolio in Quebec and Ontario
- Acquisition (assets) of one of the SITQ industrial portfolios
- Acting on the development and construction of the Bell Centre site in Montréal, the monetization of the emphyteutic lessor's interest and the sale of Bell Centre to Gillette
- Representing the lead underwriter, CIBC World Markets Inc., in the C$344-million commercial mortgage-backed securities offering of N-45º (an affiliate of the Caisse de dépôt)
- Acting for the senior lenders in a U$1.25-billion financing with Teleglobe Inc.
Norm is a member of the Ontario and Quebec Bars.
