DLA Piper (Canada) LLP, in conjunction with DLA Piper LLP (US), acted for Carnival Corporation (“Carnival”) in the US $290 million acquisition of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway (”WPYR”) from TWC Enterprises Limited.

As part of the acquisition, the DLA Piper teams also represented Carnival in a second transaction related to the sale of a majority interest in WPYR to companies affiliated with Carrix, a global ports and logistics company, as well as certain shareholders of Carrix. Both transactions closed on July 31, 2018.

WPYR is a Class 3 narrow gauge railway that was built in 1898 linking the Port of Skagway, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon. Originally built as a means of transporting people and equipment to and from the Yukon goldfields, it has become the largest tourist attraction in the State of Alaska and a represented a strategic fit for Carnival as the cruise line with the largest presence in Alaska.

The transactions involved significant due diligence in Alaska, the Yukon Territory and British Columbia on the companies that owned and operated the Route as well as a number of complex corporate, real estate, environmental, tax, and regulatory issues. DLA Piper teams in Canada and the US drew on resources from Vancouver and Toronto in Canada and Seattle, the Silicon Valley, Tampa, and Washington, DC in the US. Members of the DLA Piper Canada team included, Brian Hiebert, Forrest Hume, John Landry, Mike Mjanes, Lana Finney, Catherine Pawluch, Peter Rowntree, and others.