Willkie served as U.S. legal advisor to the Special Committee of The Westaim Corporation (TSXV: WED) in connection with the creation of an integrated insurance and asset management platform by CC Capital and The Westaim Corporation.

On October 9, CC Capital and Westaim announced a strategic combination of Canadian investment company Westaim, Arena Investors, LP, a global institutional asset manager founded in partnership with Westaim, and Ceres Life Insurance Company, a cloud-native, highly scalable annuity platform incubated by CC Capital. In connection with the transaction, CC Capital has committed to making a $250 million strategic investment in Westaim.

The combination will transform Westaim into an integrated insurance and asset management platform, with a growing and diversified credit manager and an advantaged, tech-enabled insurance carrier that is expected to provide competitively priced fixed income and multi-year guarantee annuity products to policyholders and drive strong and sustainable value creation for Westaim shareholders. The closing of the transaction is subject to receipt of required shareholder approvals and customary closing conditions.

The Willkie team was led by partners Larissa Marcellino, Sean Ewen, Hugh McLaughlin and Robert Stebbins.