Genivar to convert from income trust fund

GENIVAR has announced its intention to convert from an income trust fund to a publicly-traded corporation on approximately January 1 of next year. The consulting engineering company became a publicly traded Income Fund in May 2006. It is one of only a handful of consulting engineering companies in Canada that are publicly traded.
Since 2006 Genivar has acquired 42 companies and expanded across Canada and internationally. Its revenues have increased from $176 million to $478 million in the same period. It now has more than 4,100 employees.
Subject to a shareholders’ meeting that will take place at the McCord Museum in Montreal on May 27 as well as government and other approvals, the company will become GENIVAR Inc. and will be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “GNV” next year.
Unit holders in the trust fund, one-third of whom are employees, will be offered shares in the new corporation.
In a press release, Pierre Shoiry, president and CEO of Genivar Income Fund said that converting to a publicly traded company “will simplify the business structure and will provide greater flexibility to continue growing [the company’s] business.”
While there have been certain tax advantages in Canada to setting up business as an income trust, those advantages are being withdrawn by the federal government of Canada effective in 2011. Income funds are also not well understood as a corporate structure outside Canada.