Peter Riddell
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Biography
Peter Riddell is the Montréal local co-chair of our business law group.
Peter's practice is focused on mergers and acquisitions, joint venture and other complex commercial arrangements, carve-out transactions, and corporate and commercial law. He represents clients in various industries, including aerospace, agriculture, technology, pharma, renewable energy and entertainment.
Peter has developed a relatively broad corporate practice ranging from advising large multinational corporations in the context of cross-border M&A, to smaller emerging scale-ups in early- and later-stage financings. He has a great deal of experience representing Canada-based corporations in connection with their international M&A and other transactions, leveraging NRF's global platform to assist with jurisdiction-specific matters that arise in these transactions.
Peter spent a year practising out of NRF's New York office where his practice was focused on assisting Canadian clients with their US transactions. Peter is also a member of the firm's student committee and mentors a number of our younger lawyers.
Professional experience
Collapse allB.C.L./LL.B, McGill University, 2009
BSBA, Ohio State University, 2006
- Quebec 2010
Clients for whom Peter has acted include:
- CAE Inc. in its acquisitions of (i) Sabre's AirCentre suite of flight and crew management software for US $392.5M, (ii) Flight Simulation Company B.V. (Netherlands), (iii) Alpha-Omega Change Engineering, Inc. (United States), (iv) Pelesys Learning Systems Inc. (Canada) and (v) Merlot Aero Limited (New Zealand).
- Bombardier Inc. in connection with (i) a US $1 billion investment by the Government of Quebec in the C Series aircraft program and the subsequent transfer of such program to Airbus, (ii) the sale of its aerostructures and aftermarket services businesses in Belfast, Northern Ireland (known as Short Brothers), Casablanca, Morocco and Dallas, Texas to Spirit Aerosystems for US $275M, (iii) the sale of Bombardier's electrical wiring interconnection system assets in Querétaro, Mexico to France-based Latécoère, and (iv) in other cross-border asset dispositions.
- BlueFocus Intelligent Communications Group, a Chinese public company, in connection with the sale of a majority stake in its international group of marketing and advertising agencies, comprised of Cossette, Eleven, Citizen Relations, We Are Social and fuseproject, to a joint venture composed of CVC Capital Partners and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and the rebranding of that group as Plus Company.
- SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. in the sale of its Oil and Gas Engineering and Construction business to Kentech.
- French television production companies Newen and TF1 in connection with Newen's acquisition of a majority interest in Reel One Entertainment, a Canadian scripted content producer-distributor, and subsequent minority stake acquisition of Reel One by A&E Television Networks.
- Special committee of the board of directors of Lumenpulse Group Inc. in connection with its $600 million going-private transaction.
- Lowe's Canada and RONA Inc. in connection with the sale by RONA of its Ace Canada business to Peavey Industries.
- Stornoway Diamond Corporation in its $946 million comprehensive financing transaction with US private equity firm Orion Mine Finance, Investissement Québec, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to fund the construction of the Renard Diamond Project, Quebec's first diamond mine
- Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in its initial investment of approximately US$500 million in a portfolio of approximately 1,500 megawatts of operating wind farms in the United States and Canada that are owned and operated by Invenergy Wind, subsequent add-on investments and related transactions, and ongoing corporate and commercial matters in connection therewith
- Icahn Enterprises LP in its US$340 million acquisition of the US automobile aftermarket product distribution business of TSX-listed Uni-Select Inc.
- Best Lawyers in Canada: Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2023-2025; Venture Capital Law, 2025
- Chambers Canada, Quebec: Corporate/Commercial, Chambers and Partners, 2025
- Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, 2022-2023: recommended in Mergers & Acquisitions; 2023-2024: recommended in Corporate Commercial Law; 2023-2024: recommended in Corporate Mid-Market
- Lexpert Rising Star: Leading Lawyer Under 40, 2023
- Member, board of directors, Depot Community Food Centre (formerly the NDG Food Depot)
- Canadian Bar Association
- Young Bar Association of Montreal