Genivar goes public

Montreal-based consulting engineering company GENIVAR has become a publicly traded company. The GENIVAR Income Fund completed its first public offering on May 25. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol GNV.UN.
Until now only two Canadian consulting engineering companies that were publicly traded were Stantec of Edmonton and SNC-Lavalin of Montreal. While Canada has several other large engineering consulting firms, they are employee-owned companies or owned by international parent corporations.
The Genivar Income Fund initially offered 10 million units at $10 per unit. The units are expected to produce an initial annual yield of 10%.
Proceeds of the offering were used to acquire a majority share in Genivar’s consulting engineering business and at the same time to acquire MacViro Holdings, an engineering consulting company with 170 employees based in Markham, north of Toronto. MacViro has provided consulting engineering services since 1988 and also has an office in Trinidad and Tobago, a location in which Genivar also has an office. Employees at Genivar’s Steeles Ave. office in Toronto will be relocating to MacViro’s facilities.
Genivar has been working to establish a stronger foothold in Ontario and earlier this year it appointed Marc Rivard, P.Eng. as regional director for eastern Ontario. The company will now have a staff of nearly 250 professionals in Ontario, with offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Brockville. Overall it has 30 offices in Canada, as well as the office in Trinidad & Tobago.
After the offering, Genivar’s President and Chief Executive Officer Pierre Shoiry thanked the GENIVAR employees for the interest they expressed in the initial public offering and said it has been a resounding success. He suggested they are now on a course to make Genivar a truly national company.
See www.genivar.com