Background

Edward Tapuska is a partner in the Calgary office. Edward was admitted to the Alberta Bar in 1987. He graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts degree (Political Science) in 1982 and thereafter graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Laws degree.

Areas of Practice

• Edward has practised in the area of corporate/commercial law since 1987 with an emphasis on clients involved in the natural resources sector. In particular, Mr. Tapuska’s practise focuses on corporate and securities transactions (IPO’s, private placements, debt and equity financings) with exposure to mergers and acquisitions, takeover bids and plans of arrangement.
• Mr. Tapuska also has considerable experience in a wide variety of oil and gas transactions(international and domestic) including farmout agreements, joint ventures and property acquisitions.
• Edward is the Regional Chair (Calgary) of BLG’s Oil & Gas Group and co-chairs BLG’s International Planning Task Force.

Professional Experience

• Edward has a broad corporate/commercial law background. Matters in which Edward has often been retained with respect to securities related transactions include:
  • Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and secondary offerings involving common shares, preferred shares, exchangeable shares, warrants, limited partnership units, special warrants and debt securities ranging in size up to $1 billion;
  • Initial Listings and ongoing listings compliance on various stock exchanges including the TSX, TSX-V and AIM. Also Canadian counsel on a Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing;
  • Take-over Bids (friendly and hostile) involving private and public companies with transaction sizes in excess of $1 billion;
  • Plans of Arrangement of a wide variety including conventional take-over bids (shares/cash), public newco spin outs and cross border take-over bids;
  • Mergers and Acquisitions (domestic and foreign), including corporate structuring and reorganizations;
  • A significant number of brokered and non-brokered private placements throughout Canada and the United States, with subscription proceeds of up to $500 million;
  • Rights Offerings and Issuer Bids;
  • Provision of legal counsel on all aspects of Corporate Governance including the creation of corporate policies regarding audit committees and insider trading, reserves committees, compensation committees and other matters of corporate governance;
  • Day to day corporate activities including stock option plan preparation and grants and preparation of annual corporate disclosure materials (NI 51-101 oil and gas disclosure, Annual Information Forms, Management Information Circulars);
  • Currently acts as Corporate Secretary on a number of publicly listed companies operating domestically and internationally.
• Natural resources matters that Edward has lead or been involved with include:
  • Preparation and negotiation of conventional and frontier domestic oil and gas agreements including farmout agreements, joint operating agreements, construction, ownership and operations agreements;
  • All aspects associated with the establishment of a foreign natural-gas powered electrical power generation facility in North and West Africa;
  • Conventional oil and gas asset purchases and sales;
  • International concession agreements, production sharing contracts and finance and production sharing contracts (Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Argentina);
  • Wide variety of financing agreements associated with domestic and offshore oil and gas assets;
  • Licensing of international and domestic seismic data.

Professional and Community Activities

• Member, Law Society of Alberta
• Member, Canadian Bar Association, Securities and Business Law Subsections
• Member, Calgary Bar Association
• Lectured or participated as a panel member at numerous securities and oil and gas seminars in Canada, the United States and China.